Play With Fire
by Clover Luck
Summary: Hiatus.
1. Prolouge

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..**

Sometimes as I walk down a dark and lonely road I wonder if there is any such thing as a light at the end of a tunnel. What happens if before you reach it you run out of strength? Sometimes you just can't make it; you just can't see that light. You find yourself sitting in the middle of the tunnel, the light is there but you can't reach it.

_ You can never find light in the dark._

You go crazy because you just _can't _do it. You try to stand, try so hard to make it but you collapse. The light is staring at you, it's laughing at you as you struggle to reach it. You want it so bad you can't bear it. Suddenly it goes black. The light isn't there anymore. All you see is darkness. And you're happy. You're just so happy that the light isn't there making fun of you. It isn't there to tell you that there's more to life and that you're too weak to reach it. The darkness is denial, and it's always been my best friend. If you believe there's no such thing as light, then denial will grant it and you'll be covered in everlasting darkness.

Here's my picture: Crimson. All over my face. My hands. My crimson. And my family's crimson mixed with innocence crimson. I've learned through the years that happiness is an illusion. Happiness makes me scared. I do not understand it. Others I have seen have this happiness. They exploit it. They love it. How I wish I could be like them sometimes.

Be who they are. Accepted. Loved. Heh, my life is so messed up it makes me just want to fall of the face of this earth and rot in hell. Killing myself, now that would make me truly happy. And I almost got what I wanted. Almost. Killing took away everything I was. So why not let the shell rest with the soul?

I was the sort to rarely show emotion, but that didn't mean I couldn't feel it. I just kept it deep down. It hurt to keep the facade going, and I often wondered why I did. Perhaps I was a coward, afraid of showing my feelings. Perhaps it was the only way I knew _how_ to live.

My name is Hyuuga Natsume.

When I heard my cell ring- I flipped it open, "Natsume, we need to talk." I recognized the voice that came from the other side of the phone.

"I don't."

"Ugh, I'm serious! We HAVE to get matters straight. Natsume…you…you love me, don't you?"

"Koizumi, we'll talk some other time."

"Wait, Natsume, don't you dare—"

With out giving her a chance to talk, I switched off and sighed in frustration lighting a cigarette; a small flame flickered above my finger. This was all that bastard- Persona's fault. One day he's got hell to pay.

Ii could hear footsteps my way, from the corner of my eyes I saw Imai. "I have good news, we found him, he lives here in Kyoto." He felt a bit relieved to hear that as she handed him details.

'**Details**: Name: **Nogi Ruka**

Age: 15

Appearance: Blond haired, sky-blue eyes

Character: Gentle, caring, calm and loves nature.

Family: only a mother; Nogi Serena'

**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

**DAY 2; **

"Bye, Ruka, see you tomorrow!"

Bespectacled eyes as blue as the ocean smiled back at his friends, waving as he headed off home. He took off his shoes once he entered as his mom come towards him with cake mix in her hands, she had blonde hair that reached till her waist and was tied in a low pony-tail, her almond brown orbs glistening with love. "Hello Ruka, how was--" but she was cut off since she slipped on a banana peel and was about to drop the mix on him. in a blink of an eye, Ruka shielded himself with his hands but…

"WHAT ON EARTH HAPPENED???" shouted the-oh-so surprised Ruka seeing that his mom froze in an about-to-fall stanza? "You should be happy that I saved you." A voice came which made Ruka immediately turn to see that time had stupendously froze and he and the girl before him were the only ones who could move.

Her one arm hugged a thick book, she had on a plain black loose sleeveless dress that reached till her ankles, a pointy witch cap stood above her head and her hair was streaked with purple.

"W-Who a-are you? W-What's going on? Y-you, how did y-you d-do this?" stuttered Ruka,

"My name is Imai Hotaru, and obviously I froze time." She came a bit closer and took Ruka's hand and intertwined her fingers through his causing him to blush. '_Yup, it's him…_' she sighed.

"So you're the chosen one. Hmph, I guess beggars can't be choosers. Why an insolent such as yourself become the chosen one of all people I wonder?" her voice as sarcastic as ever.

Ruka removed his hand from hers and demanded, "Why don't you start making sense?"

"Fine. I'm a witch who is also a haemorphage." Ruka's voice was curious yet calm, "And what might a haemorphage be?"

She looked at him, "a haemorphage is a superior form of a demon- the creatures of hell. Because of their merciless behavior and emotionless acts- the people of Kingdom Alice had nick-named them _nobodies_ out of disgust. Kingdom Alice is a country that is somewhat unknown to the humans and is located in another dimension. More importantly, the seal that keeps demons away from the human world has been broken and thus the haemorphages have rebelled. They have formed into an organization called AAO. So in order to stop them we must find, what we call Alice stones---hey, are you even listening?" The irritated witch tapped her foot in annoyance glaring at Ruka who was trying hard to wake his frozen mother.

"Nope. Does every thing out of your mouth sound like a book report?"

Suddenly the ground started shaking and when the two went outside to check it out there they saw creatures appearing that were of different sizes, but horrid looking came to attack Ruka (they were outside now), "Whoa! Are these the demons?"

"Yes if you'd pay attention perhaps I could explain more! They won't stop until they take _her _heart. You must stop them." she snapped angrily.

"Who's her? And there's no way I could stop this—" Ruka was cut off when one of the creatures attacked him but he luckily dodged it. He took out a metal rod and decided to fight them even though he had no confidence. Unfortunately the creatures couldn't be hit and rod kept passing through them and more and more started to appear.

"W-What do I do?" he asked scared. "Use the thunder blade!" she shouted.

"Huh? What the-." he was again cut off when a sword magically appeared in his hand. It was blue and silver but not as heavy as Natsume's so he could easily carry it. He started to hit those creatures, a few turned into ashes but more and more bigger and dangerous ones came which was difficult to fight and he got hurt, he winced audibly staring helplessly at the demons that were ready to pounce at him.

While he was on the floor wincing in pain, Natsume came to him. He turned his back to fight the demons and asked from his shoulders, "You okay?" Ruka nodded in agreement. He also noticed that Natsume was skillfully fighting them with his sword that could produce fire in the blade. _What's going on? _He wondered. Once the last one disintegrated into ashes, Natsume stretched his hand towards Ruka, "Those things were after you and the princess. But I think you were okay for a first-timer."

Ruka smiled accepting the hand. **…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

"WHAT?! Are you serious?" Ruka exclaimed, thinking whether these people were demented, "There is no, absolutely NO way that I'd plan on traveling through different worlds!"

Natsume swept his raven locks aside, his voice void of emotion, "Then do you plan on disappearing like mist?" Ruka blinked as Natsume continued shrugging, "If you don't help, then you'd disappear since the Alice stone are the only things that can save you from dying. It's a win or loose situation."

Ruka pondered on the thought for a while, his eyes furrowed in thought. His eyes drifted at a picture with his mother and him happily playing around when he was little. His mom loved him so much and he was the only one who gave her strength after his father had died. He reasiled that right now all he thought was about himself, as much as he hated to admit it- he was a mommy's boy.

"I-If you put it that way, then…fine."

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...**

_It was a very bizarre place with no trees, building and just wind blowing on her ivory skinned face, her long eye lashes covering those beautiful olive eyes, she then realized that she was in some kind of darkness and slowly somebody appears facing backs in a sort of shielding way, but since her vision was blurry, all she could see was a pair of crimson eyes then raven hair then…as her vision got clearer she could make out the differences. _

_he seemed around the same age was in a over coat, hood down, with only one full sleeve and the left hand is sleeveless, the leather coat was black and inches below the knees while he wore very dark jeans underneath, his ears were pierced with gold earrings with a stone of ruby in one of them and the other had the symbol of a dragon. There was a tattoo on the sleeveless side shaped like a dragon and he had a sword that was real heavy but she guessed he didn't mind since he was strong, or at least that's what he looked like. _

_Suddenly creatures out of nowhere popped out and they were scary to look at and she was so out of her wits but to her surprise that guy was protecting her. She then felt black smoke surround her and then looked down to see she was dragged under a portal or something and… and… _

Her eyes shot open and she gasped for air, her hand reached for a glass of water beside her bed and gulped it down shaking. She couldn't sleep- not after the dream she just had. She then seated her self on the study table, and plopped open a fancy looking journal.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...**

Dear diary,

Just when I was beginning to think that my life couldn't get any worse I seem to experience those strange dreams again and again. Oh, Kami-sama, what could they mean? I don't get it! There has to be SOMETHING! Maybe I'm being exaggerative, yeah, that's it! I can't let this silly ol' dream get to the best of me!

Now let's get to the most important part, didn't I inform you that today my mother was supposed to meet my homeroom teacher, Jinno-sensei right?

_I sat out side the teacher's lounge sweating for outcome that my mother would –gulp- give me. _

**My Thought :**

My mother started to speak with a spotlight at her face in a dark room as jii-chan was seen crying loudly, "Oh Mikan it's so nice of you to sleep at math class! Well I am sooooo proud of you honey that I award you with no dinner and I shall make you pay by stabbing you with this knife, mwuhahahahaaaa!"

I sweat-drop.

**End of thought**

I don't think my mom would do that…now would she? My thoughts were cut of when I saw her come out of the lounge **giggling** and **blushing**!

No…way… Jinno-sensei was actually **s-smiling**? Double no way! Wake up Mikan, this dream is the worst I've ever dreamt, WAKE UP! As soon as we get home she comes and hugs me and says, "Honey, this was the best parents meeting day ever!" Did I hear that right? "Jinno is such a gentle man" Heck I'm deaf

"**He asked me out tonight**!"

THIS IS A NIGHTMARE!!!!!!!! MY MOM'S GONE INSANE!!!!!! I AM SO DEAD!!!! GOD, WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN TO ME????

My life is officially over.

The end.

**End of flash back**

I looked at my mom as she asked me another question, "Mikan-chan, honestly you don't have a problem with me and Jinno, right?" Oh man, how I want to stand on my table and scream off to the whole world just one thing; 'YOU THINK?' But my mom was exited that she even got a new outfit, a channel gown! A CHANNEL GOWN THAT COSTS HER ABOUT 200$!!!

How could I spoil something like that?

I looked at her and forced a smile and I think I said a 'no'. She started to go back to the state of excitement and hummed a happy tone –sigh- again as I rolled my eyes and jii-chan raised his eye brows. He muttered about not seeing anything so special in a sadistic teacher who baby-sits a frog on his shoulders as I quietly ate my soup.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...**

They then appeared on a small hill to find a small house which looked pretty old and the paint was half washed off but it still looked cozy and warm. "This is her house?" Ruka asked the two. "Yes" she quietly replied and went to the door step. She saw it was locked.

"I guess her mom is out and jii-san is asleep." She said confidently since she could hear the old man's snores from inside. "The princess must be here some where, let's split up." She continued.

Ruka went to look bellow the hill as Hotaru went to her house and Natsume was left with the back yard. It was more like a garden and a lot of trees were there too. seeing that nothing else was there, he planned on leaving. But he changed his mind as soon as he heard muffled voices behind the bushes, slowly moving there he found a

_konna ni no tooku e futari wa kiteshimatte  
ano koro no  
osanai kimi no hohoemi ni mou kaerenai ne  
kimi ga warau sekai de suki de  
soba ni itai sore dake  
wasurekaketa itami mou mune ni _

He lingered at the young girl sing; her voice melodies voice calmed his nerves. Wearing a dark blue skirt and a white tank top dotted with yellow flowers, she stands there clipping her clothes on a string to let dry, almost unaware of the layout surrounding her.

_Time goes by...  
toki no nagare wa  
futari o kaette yuku keredo  
nakushita mono mo yume miru mono mo  
sono te o totte omoidasu yo  
itsumo kimi no soba de _

Her mousy-brown hair tied into two pigtails and tangled on a silver chain necklace with an angel trinket on her long neck. Although she had long hair that often touched her baby-soft skin because of the wind, her earrings shine through, revealing a pair of pale purple flower earrings.

_kanashii koto sae oboeteo kitai kara  
kimi no chizu ni  
watashi o tame no peeji o nokoshiteoite ne  
mirai kara fukitsukeru kaze o  
kimi wa ano hi shinjita  
ashita wa motto takaku maiagare _

Mikan twirled around splashing her feet in puddles and laughing as her laundry clothes flew off the basket and she ran after them as they scattered around having the least care in the world despite the fact that her mother is with Jin-Jin at the moment.

_Time goes by...  
toki no nagare wa  
futari o kaette yuku keredo  
nakushita mono mo yume miru mono mo  
sono te o totte omoi dasu yo  
(la la la la la la...) _

'Idiot.' He thought staring at her laugh, even her laugh seemed so sweet and light. There was something about this girls, unlike the other girls he met- sure they were models or maybe rich, but this one was different.

_Time goes by...  
toki ga sugitemo kitto kawareru  
mono ga aru no  
todokanai kara mitsuketai kara  
yume no tsubasa wo sagashi ni yuku  
soba ni iru yo…zutto _

She then picked up her laundry and but one of her umm… under garments flew to the direction behind the bushes where Natsume was. "Hey, that's mine." She yelled loud enough for Natsume to hear.

She than ran into the bushes bent down to pick her polka-dotted undies beside someone's feet. "Nice panties for a woman, **_polka-dots_**." A rude voice said sarcastically. "Why you—" she was cut off when she looked up to see some one that made her froze.

**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

_Hello readers! I hope you like this since this is my first but I hope it didn't bother you all since it was long. I made it long so I could make Natsume and Mikan meet in the first chapter. By the way, the song was 'Tsubasa no Yume'. _

_Kairi _


	2. Cats stayed over!

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!' 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice

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"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! G-G-G-G-GGHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSSSSSSSSSSSTT! WWHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH" Our favorite brunette yelled on top of her lungs. Her voice was so loud that the confused Natsume stumbled a bit then regained his composer and covered his ears as his eardrums were bursting in agony, the ground started to shake, the birds chirped in as they flew off and the glass windows started to crack then broke. Natsume kept yelling stuff like 'urusai (shut up)' and stuff but the poor lads voice was nothing compared to the brunette opera singer whose screaming was unbearable. '_Was I hallucinating when she sang?'_ he thought in disgust.

Okay, now he couldn't take it anymore. He grabbed hold of one of her pigtails and pinned her to the ground. He was on top of her and her legs intertwined with his. He slightly choked her neck, "Will you SHUT UP?" he yelled.Mikan silenced in fear and looked into his cold eyes, "_He sure is mad, I'm dog meat now! Doushiou (What should I do?)" _"Who the hell are you?" he asked releasing her neck seeing that she is now quite and moved his hand into her silky pigtails and pulled it. She was in a confused and frightened state, her lips became dried and her eyes were nearing to tears. "Tell me or I'll burn you."

'_NANI? How? He has –gulp- weapons' she thought._ "W-watashi Sakura M-Mikan." She stuttered. He then got of her and let go her hair. '_She is the…princess_?' He thought. Again silence as they stared at each other. Silence…silence…silence…silence…silence…silence…silence…silence…silence…silence… Ugh deafening silence! They were now there for about 10 minutes staring. Natsume had to guard over her while Mikan was too scared to move since **he** was there, "for a princess, you sure are ugly." Natsume said flatly. Veins popped on her head and her eyes twitched, _'control Mikan, control you temper since your in front of a terrorist!' _"Eto…anata wa dare? (Well…who are you?)" she tried asking politely. At least she tried! "Why should I answer an idiot like you?" he shot a death glare at her and then ran off. "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE YOU HENTAIIII!!!?" She yelled back at his retreating figure.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"IMAI!" The running blond yelled at the stoic girl Hotaru with her companion Usagi-chan who were finally found some where down hill. "I've pant…finally…pant…found…pant….you…" he said panting putting his hands on his knees. Jeez, he searched for Natsume and Hotaru all over the place. And the emotionless witch is sitting in a café peacefully drinking her tea as the bunny fed on carrot sticks. _'Ugh, she could at least call me on my mobile phone and inform me that she was here.'_ "Imai-san…" he called out. "My phone was out of battery and needs to be charged so I did not call you…" she told him as though she could read his mind and continued now facing him, "I know this might sound awkward but I think you and Hyuuga should stay at my place until we find a place for the two of you to live." '_And we don't have much time either; we need to get the princess to travel with us too.'_ She thought.

"I-In your house… b-but is it okay with your family?" he asked her slightly bewildered since **the Imai Hotaru** invited **him** to her house. Hotaru then closed her eyes and relaxed her head on the chair. "I don't have one…" she said softly. Is that why she was so…so depressed? Because she has nobody to care for her and she lived her life all alone. He stared at her apolitically and wished he never asked her that. "And I don't need your sympathy either, so just follow me to my compartment." She then picked up the rabbit and walked ahead of him. Ruka couldn't help but smile, "Right!" he said to himself following her.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"Don't you think we should search for Natsume?" Ruka asked while he removed his sports shoes and Hotaru turns on the lights. "No. I'm sure he would effortlessly make his way here since he has my address. But I wonder why is he delayed?" she asked as she glanced at the clock which states the time 5:30. Ruka shrugged and lay on the couch. "I'll go change, oh! And just don't make yourself too comfortable." She sneered obviously irritated by the way Ruka had his legs on her new velvet sofa. Ruka rolled his eyes, "so much for a warm welcome" he said to himself. He then decided to look around at his new so called 'home'. He noted things mentally:

House looked as that of a corpse grave. cheap furniture Broken items used over and over again. '_Man_, _Imai sure is stingy, she didn't even bother getting me coffee.' _He thought. 

But some thing caught his eye. It was a picture of 10 year old Hotaru and a brunette. _'Wait a minute…don't tell _

_me… Mikan-chan is the…' _Sure Ruka didn't realize that Mikan was the princess until now, as his eyes grew wide, he whispers to himself, "Mikan-chan…" he then touched the photo "Mikan-chan… you're the princess…".

"You mean you knew that she was… why didn't you tell us?" she asked him with her piercing violet orbs that some what sent chills in his spine. Was she here the whole time? '_Nyaah! She sure is scary' _Ruka thought with a sweat drop as his eye brows twitched in fear, "Eto…sunimasen (sorry), I didn't hear her name correctly." He replied sheepishly. "More importantly how do you know each other?" she asked _'Yugata(thank goodness) I'm saved!'_ he thought as Ruka laughed nervously and said, "My mom, Serena-san is a close friend of her mom ever since we were young so we happened to know each other for a pretty long time now." Natsume was just in time to hear their conversation so he just kept quite. He doesn't like to socialize a lot.

Hotaru then looked at the two handsome teens and then spoke, "Oi, animal boy, now that you know her, you could tell your mom to call over Yuka-san and tell her that you and your friend a.k.a. Hyuuga are going to stay over her house for a while and transfer to our school so that the two of you could protect her at home as well as at school. And I would come and stay as in sleepovers more often to keep an eye on her as well. Any doubts?" She asked emotionlessly. Natsume coolly asked, "Just this morning the demons and nobodys attacked us for polka- I mean the princess, so while we spend the night here, who would guard over her? She still isn't aware of anything yet."

"Now that you mention it, on second thought…" she said with a mysterious look that some what made the boys shudder a bit.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

**Ding dong. **

"Hai!" Mikan yelled running towards the door cheerfully forgetting about what happened this afternoon. "Ara! Hotaru! What brings you here? I told that I would take a day off so—KAWAII! Are these your cats?" she asked excitedly as she stared with sparkling eyes at two kittens in the stoic girl's arms; one black cat with red eyes and the other was a grey one with turquoise-blue eyes. "Whatever. Look, I just got these from the pet shop but I got some urgent things to attend to first so I'm leaving them with you for tonight, okay?" she asked. '_More like commanding'_ Mikan thought rolling her eyes then she smiled and agreed.

Mikan waved back at Hotaru who left and closed the door. "Sigh. So I guess you must be hungry, I'll just take you to my room and get you something." She smiled and petted the two cats. The grey one seemed to purr but the black cat tried to bite her. She giggled then took them in her arms as she skipped to her room humming. When the two cats were left alone, the grey cat sighed. Wait! Sighed? Yup they can talk! "Ne, Natsume…" the grey cat called to the black one, "…remember that the cat turning spell Imai put on us would wear off next morning. But if we are cats then how could we fight when the nobodys come again?" Ruka cat asked Natsume cat intelligently.

"We can revert back to ourselves when we have to or want to… but that is only until next morning then we automatically turn back to ourselves. That's why we should get out of here before 6 a.m. Damn that Imai, why cats of all ideas?" he cursed her as Ruka sighed again. Imai. Was. Freaky. And that was for sure! Well anyways Mikan skipped happily into her room which was plain yet cozy. She didn't have any thing expensive and unlike other teenaged girls, there were no posters of guys hung around or the study table was neat instead of the make-up items the other girls would have.

"Here you go." She said as she served the two kittens some…cat food? _'What the heck? I'm supposed to eat that?'_ Natsume thought as he stared at the brown yucky substance and in his vision it seemed like…_cow dung._ He then pushed it off with his err…paws and then took a glance at kitty Ruka who's face was currently turning green to purple from eating that. "Ex-excuse me Natsume b-but I need to u-use the bathroom, ja!" he whispered to Natsume hurriedly and ran off anime style. Mikan stared at the running cat with dotted eyes, "Did I do something?" she asked.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"YOU GO BUBBLES!" Mikan screamed at the television set as Natsume cat that was on top of her lap (forcibly) waiting for Ruka only to receive different sounds of barfing. Natsume rolled his eyes as he swung his tail left and right seeing the olive eyed teenager screaming with enthusiasm watching…_Power Puff Girls_? '_Baka! But why do I feel that she is…damn cute._' He thought as he vigorously shook his head and growled at the innocent girl who smiled warmly and petted his head. "You sure are pretty arrogant for a cat, but that's what makes you special he-he." She took him to her eye level and was swinging him here and there as though dancing.

He got irritated then… he took his paw and…_swish_! He cut her nose with his nails! "ITAI!" Mikan winced in pain and pinched her nose which bled excessively. Ruka by then came out fully umm…cured and saw that his master was bleeding. He ran to her aid and leapt beside her with concerned eyes. "Daijoubu! Zettai daijoubu dayo. (I'm fine. Everything is alright.)" She said as she smiled serenely and patted the two kittens head despite Natsume's behavior.

After a while Mikan came to the living room with her nose bandaged and sat beside the two cats on the couch hugging her knees. She was in deep thought, '_Oka-san sure is taking so long for her date. There is nothing to worry anyways! I mean she's not the type that would let a guy shove his tongue in her mouth in her first date, right?'_ Mikan sighed sadly making her friend Ruka worried since it was the first time he saw her watching **educational documentary **which was sooooooooooo boring that Natsume tried to burn her into flames if it wasn't for . Instead he snatched the remote from her hands; surprising Mikan and changed the channel to some violence movie. Both Mikan and Ruka sweat-dropped and Mikan laughed nervously and said, "He sure is a talented cat."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

Mikan was done giving the Ruka kitten a bath; Natsume refused to let her give him one by showing Mikan his nails as if challenging her that if she comes close than she would need more bandages. Mikan jumped on her cushiony bed as the two cats were seated in the carpet watched her frown looking at the clock hung on the wall. "Yawn…today sure was tiring…" she said to herself and took a glance at her temporary cats. Ruka then realized that she started to remove her clothes. "Nya" Ruka swiftly turned around blushing like mad. "Jeez, Ruka, I don't see why your so embarrassed. She is **_flat chested_**!" Natsume said as he coolly laid his back on the carpet; one leg on top of the other and his paws behind his head (Whoa! Imagine a cat doing that) as though he was in a beach relaxing under the sun. Ruka sweat-dropped seeing his best friends reaction.

"Ne, I don't feel so sleepy worrying about my mom. I think you two can't sleep as well. Sigh." She then got off her bed and walked to the widow. As she opened it the wind passed through her scattering her pigtailed hair in different directions and the moon light shone on her delicate face making her look ever so serene.

She then picked up the two kittens in her hands and placed them on her bed. She slept in between the two cats and hugged the black one a.k.a. Natsume since Ruka was already asleep. A tint of red appeared on his cheeks as he tried to struggle from her gasp but to no avail. He stopped struggling and surprisingly cuddled up to her slightly blushing as he felt her warmth and her breath pass his fur. '_Looks like I'll have to wait till 6 in the morning, damn it, sounds like a Cinderella story!' _

Then passed and morning approached and it was time to change back. Because of Mikan's warmth, Natsume sort of over slept and she still hugged him tightly; which wouldn't let him out of her grip. But still he had 5 minutes. He tried to wake Ruka up to help him out without waking her up but Ruka was unconsciously was hugging Mikan from the back and was covered in blankets in his cat form. "Ruka wake up…SHOOT!" Natsume shouted since he was glowing like mad that could mean only one thing. He is turning back to himself and so was Ruka! When the glow was gone, Ruka and _Mikan_ woke up.

**She was stunned**! A guy whose face was covered in blankets was hugging her from the back and she was hugging the guy she saw yesterday. She was too stunned to loosen her grip but he still tried to get out from her tight grip before some thing bad happens. Ruka who hid his face under the blankets so as to not let her see his face; because she knows him things could get messy. When Mikan realized their current situation, "AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" once again she screamed her lungs off. Ruka (who took the blanket along as well to cover his face.) and Natsume jumped off the bed and Mikan started to throw any thing her hand could reach out at them, lamps, clock etc. The two boys jumped out the window and ran as fast as they could like they stole the world costliest jewel or something. And Mikan you ask, well there is only one thing in her brain.

_'HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GET MARRIED NOW?' _

_  
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_I hope you like it_; _I'll soon make them to travel other worlds. Please keep reviewing, they mean a lot to me._


	3. Pigs have started to fly!

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!' 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!!

The song is Play With Fire by Hilary Duff, suitable for the story don't ya think? Thanks for the reviews and please keep reviewing.

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"Gomene Hotaru…" a girl with brunette hair with her pigtails a mess and tired eyes yawned as the sun shone brightly at her angelic face, "…I searched for the two cats every where demo I couldn't find them, must I use my allowance to buy—" Mikan was cut off when Hotaru said, "I have already found them. You should be getting ready for school now." And with that the conversation ended. "Man that Hotaru, she sure is sophisticated. She sometimes uses words not written in the dictionary even! That's why it's difficult to be her best friend" Mikan says to herself tiredly then stretches her hands and picks up her half broken alarm clock, "Wahh! I'm gonna be late!" she screamed shacking the clock till it broke completely. She sped off to the living room.

"Ohayo oka-san, Ohayo jii-chan!" she greeted in a cheerful manner and grabbed the toast on the table and gobbled it down like there was no tomorrow. "Ahh…Mikan-chan, Ohayo gozaimasu. I have to tell you some thing important. Well you see Ruka-kun will stay with us from now on and his friend would join us as well. What was his name again…oh yeah it was—" Yuka was cut off when Mikan told her with her mouth full, "Osha-scan phot tow. Phim lhate! (Oka-san, not now. I'm late!)" She took her new bicycle and rode off to school. Yuka sighed. Her daughter has been that way ever since she was born. She physically grew like a Barbie doll but still behaved like a 5 year old. How would Yuka ever tell her the _truth_?

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OH WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYY? THIS IS SO #$&+!!! If you're wondering why I'm writing this so hard that your pages might tear off well it all started this morning! My living NIGHTMARE!!!

I entered the class clueless of what might happen and greeted every one with my cheerful self. Since I was half asleep, I didn't remember what happened this morning so I was being me. So the usual as every day I would whine that Hotaru didn't wait for me at school and Permy; a military green eyed girl with matching hair color and the weirdest hair-do would tease me in front of her snobbish friends for being a _freak_ in her views. She is such a show-off, she even uses American accent to pronounce the word freak as FUR-REEK! Any ways she and her friends would bully me, tease the hell out of me and would make me their slave some times because Shouda Sumire a.k.a. Permy is considered Jinno-sensei's favorite.

Jinno-sensei entered the class with his usual strict self. Jeez, I thought he might change with some love life…except for my mom to be his love that is. He came in as every one glued to their seats and the guy sitting in the front seat wore his usual sunglasses. But why in class where the sun doesn't dare to shine you ask? Well, it so happens these glasses aren't you normal ones. In fact they have got two tiny sweepers to wipe off water droplets. But for what you ask. About that, whenever Jinno-sensei lectures class or shouts at his student (which is so usual) he shouts too loud that he even _spits _sometimes. So bad luck for the front row! Lucky for me I'm in the second last row, _safe_.

We as in the whole class were expecting him to start his lectures about how lazy we are and didn't do our yesterdays assignments well and only Sumi—I mean Permy was good. Heck, the whole class knows that the two are related so that's why we don't dare tell him it isn't fair. His frog even looks scary! Well anyways, He started the most dreadful class of my life. "Sakura." He boomed. "Distribute the assignments as I make an announcement." Is he too lazy to do that himself? I thought in disgust and took the heavy load of papers. Then** it **happened…

"Class we have two new students joining our class so you better be nice to them. The first one is Nogi Ruka…" _'oh that's right, oka-san told me that he and his friend would stay with us for a while. That's great! Ruka-pyon!' _I thought in glee totally not hearing the second guys name and then snapped out of it when Permy threw a paper rocket at me and snickered, oh that…urgh! Then I noticed two boys enter the class. There came one of my favorite friends Ruka-pyon with calm blue eyes and blonde hair (the girls seemed to like him), while the second one was quite fierce that the boys gulped just looking at him, and the girls whistled with hearts in their eyes, he had messy hair style with a gothic look, he did have a built up body, not like a wrestler but quite boyish, and he had piercing ruby eyes that scanned the class. He unbuttoned two buttons of his uniform shirt and his tie was pretty loose. He also had silver chain and bandaged his wrist (he wasn't hurt though).

Then it hit me, HE WAS THE PERVERT FROM BEFORE!!! I gasped as I covered my mouth and dropped the assignments on the floor that caught his attention and he stopped looking around and looked at me instead. Was that maniac in search of me? "Sakura, as far as I know, you don't have interest in guys. Then what's with the shocked face? Have you seen him before?" he asked me suspiciously, "Ah, no sensei, I haven't seen him in my life, its just I'm shocked to see my friend, Ruka-py—I mean Ruka." I told him nervously. That guy smirked at me in a mocking way, when I get my hands on him…I'LL CHOKE HIM TO DEATH!

"Okay, you two take your seats now." Jinno-sensei said roughly though those two were new and his frog croaked! Can you believe that? Any ways, Ruka and I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy took the seat just behind me. I am miserable, PURE MISERABLE! The class soon ended and I decided to run away before he talks to me, unfortunately he stood in front of my desk. "Oi, polka-dots, you sure lie a lot." He said as he smirked. I ignored him, and turned back to Ruka-pyon and smiled brightly. "EH, Ruka-pyon, you should have told me earlier of your stay. I'm glad that we can be close now." I then got up and without thinking much, gave him a bear hug. He turned red for some reason.

I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy seems like he doesn't like to be ignored, so when I released Ruka-pyon from my hug, I walked to my seat that guy put his leg that I tripped and fell flat on my face. "ITAIIIIIIIIIII" I screamed so loud and got up. I touched the wound that the cat gave me yesterday and hoped on one foot screaming, "its bleeeeediiiing!" Everyone stared at me as I totally lost my pride and embarrassed myself. "Oh gosh, it really is bleeding, Mikan-chan I'll take you to the clinic." Ruka-pyon said as he grabbed my hand gently. But before that I needed to do something, "YOU! WHAT IS YOUR PROBLEM, HUH?" I yelled at his face. He just shrugged, then pushed my face away with his hand, then put his hands in his pockets and coolly said, "I dunno what you talking about polka-dots." I have never been so embarrassed ever before. I decided it's just no use to argue with him so I stomped away with Ruka-pyon before the next teacher comes.

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It was lunch time and as usual Permy and her friend would tease me saying that I'm a glutton and as usual I would ignore them. Hotaru, Ruka-pyon and me were seated in a bench as we opened our bento/lunch box and munched on our sandwiches. We noticed that Permy started drooling over that I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy and a few girls crowded him with dreamy eyes. I whispered to Ruka-pyon about how disgusting that guy was and how corrupt he was. Ruka smiled and told me that one day we'll get along. "What are you crazy? Me and that I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy will be friends, tch…immortal enemies sound better!" I retorted. Then Hotaru butted in and said, "But ones differences make them quite unique, how you accepted me when I am totally your opposite?"

"Hotaru…" I said softly turning towards her as she looked at the sky. She was right in a way; I befriended the stoic greedy girl that blackmails our own teachers! But I'm too stubborn to shake hands with that…that…that **devil**. I grumpily walked to throw my sandwich wrapper in the bin which was just beside Permy and that guy. I could feel that I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy was observing me. What is his problem? Okay now Permy grabbed my pigtails and told me, "Don't you get too close to—" I cut her off, "if you talking about that guy…" I said making a disgusted face and accusingly pointing that I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy, "…then he is all yours!" I stomped off. That I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy gave me a death glare and then turned to Permy and said, "I don't belong to anyone, I'm on my own.", then went off as Ruka-pyon followed him. Some how he said it with a meaning, his eyes…they looked a bit hurt but with more rage I was a bit surprised. Permy whispers to me "Isn't he simply great!" I rolled my eyes.

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"Oka-san, Jii-chan, I'm home!" I said cheerfully glad that class was over I don't have to see I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy again for the whole day. Yippee! Or so I thought. Ruka-pyon came in too and greeted my family like a gentleman. Jii-chan took him to one of our guest room, mom then told me, "Ruka-kun friend, Hyuuga Natsume-kun isn't here yet so when he gets here I expect you to give him a warm welcome, and I'll go take a shower now." I obediently nodded and sat at the couch with my uniform still on. I stared at the clock, half an hour then passed. _'Why is that guy taking so long anyways?'_ I asked myself.

**Din dong **

"Finally" I said to myself with and ran to the door without delay and opened the door with a wide smile plastered on my face, "Konnichowa, I'm Mikan. Welcome to the Sakura residence--- YOU! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE???" my expression changed from sweet to horror stricken when I encountered my nightmare, literally. The raven hair teenager said in a sarcastic tone as he rolled his eyes, "Aren't you gonna invite me in?" I looked at him like he was an alien and stuck out my tongue; "no." then I banged the door on his face so he would go away. Instead that jerk banged the door hard.

No, no, no, I'll be in trouble. I got scared and opened the door, "I'm waiting for Natsume-kun so will you please go away?" I told him pleadingly. He took his hand out of his pocket and pushed me by my forehead. "Can't." he said monotonously and entered in and made himself comfortable on the couch and threw his school bag on my face. "NANDE?" I yelled holding his sporty bag with skull key chains. He looked at me like I was mad and told me in a matter of fact tone the worst statement I've heard in all my life, worse than insults and Jinno-sensei's lectures, "Because **I am** Natsume, baka." I paled and dropped his heavy bag and his small bottle spilled (from the bag) water over my carpet and my jaw dropped open. Mom, jii-chan and Ruka-pyon came out, "oh good you've finally come, it became late so I thought you got lost or something. I hope you enjoy your stay with us." Jii-chan told him smiling. Ruka smiled and said a 'hey'. "I'll come when I want to." That jerk Natsume said, how rude! Jii-chan brushed it off anyways. Mom smiled and put her hand on my shoulders while gave her pleading look mixed with pure confusion "Mikan-chan, Natsume-kun will be staying with us from now on."

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

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** M**ikan sat in her bed hugging her knees muttering colorful languages. It was about dinner time and ever since she was told the 'dreadful news' she didn't get out of her room. She even didn't eat launch with the others, her launch was brought by jii-chan to her room. "Ruka-kun, Natsume-kun, Mikan was excited about your stay, do you know what changed her mood so suddenly?" Yuka asked the two handsome lads who were watching TV. "I'm not so sure, Yuka-san." Ruka answered nervously. Despite Natsume's character the Sakura family; except for Mikan that is treated the two boys like one of their own family members.

Finally Mikan got out of her room to the joy of the Sakura's and Ruka and annoyance of Natsume. Natsume wanted her to stay in there for ever, he hated her. If it wasn't for his duty he would burn her a alive. He thought bitterly as he watched her go take her coat and opened the door. "Mi-chan, where are you going?" her grandpa asked her strictly. "Is it okay for me to take a walk? I need to refresh myself." She asked politely. Jii-chan nodded and Yuka looked at her with concerned eyes. Once Mikan left, the two boys could hear Yuka talk to the old man, "I'm worried about Mikan, she never tells us what she wants and she always suppresses her problems within herself so that we don't worry."

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"Listen, this is our last chance, so we have to get the princess at any cost." The horrid looking demon from before told a group of demons as they nodded obediently unable to speak, only nobodies had brains and could talk. There were merely used.

"The princess according to our spy is taking a walk all alone so that is when we shall kidnap her. Now all of thy get to the hiding places. I can hear her footsteps."

And just as predicted our gawky princess fell in to their trap. 'Ugh. So that I-don't-care-what's-his-name guy is Natsume, huh? I can't believe why him of all people? I can even welcome Permy or Jinno-sensei to be my new dad…" she then stopped her track, "Err…scratch that last part. Oh great, can this day get any worse!?" And as she asked it began to rain. "Me and my big mouth." She then started to head to home. "Where do you think you are going your highness?", a mysterious voice called her out as the sound of droplets of rain hardens. She slowly turned around and her eyes widen in shock.

There were about 20-30 black creatures with red eyes or in other words; demons staring at her, then they started to charge her. She couldn't think, princess? That's what Natsume called her the first time they met and now these things are calling her that too. She couldn't scream, all that was in her min was she needed to run.

_Love me, love me  
Feed the flame  
If you want me back again  
Burn into the sky  
Higher and higher  
Baby, can you play with fire_

_(Burn into the sky)  
Love me, love me  
(Far into the sky)  
If you want me_

She ran trough puddles and stones. They were chasing her for like ages, and boy was she tired. She fell on her knees and then tried gaining strength to run. She begged her feet to move and some how abruptly ran.

_Ooh, by the way, by the way  
I've found someone who gives me space  
Keeps me safe  
Makes me sane  
Found someone to take your place  
Now I'm safe in his arms  
And I decided only he can play with fire_

She was surrounded; there stood the demons waiting to capture her as she breathed heavily with no more energy to run. She gave up, no her feet gave up. She lied on the floor ready for the outcome as one the head demon who spoke earlier took its claws high up in the air to hit her unconscious. It smiled wickedly in triumph. She shut her eyes tight but she couldn't feel anything, "Is this how you feel when your dead?" she asked still with her eyes closed. But she heard a familiar voice say, "No. Unlucky for me you're still alive." She opened her eyes and saw Natsume blocking the attack with his sword, black aura just like in her dream. She didn't have time to wonder about how he got a sword with fire. "NATSUME" Mikan said, first time in her life she was happy to see him.

_Love me, Love me  
Feed the flame  
If you want me back again  
Burn into the sky  
Higher and higher  
Baby, can you play with fire_

Mikan watched Natsume intently as he fought the demons as slicing butter. '_He fights so… professionally._' She thought in awe. She realized that he was saving the person he despises. '_That guy Natsume, he isn't so bad after all.' _ She smiled genuinely this time and cheered for him"GO NATSUME!!!" He got a startled by the fact that **Sakura Mikan just cheered for him**. "Hey look out!" Mikan yelled before the demons would pounce on Natsume since he was distracted. He went back to himself and fought them in time. The demons were soon getting defeated.

_I can't believe it's really you  
(Love me, love me)  
I hear you're doing really well  
(If you want me)  
Finally every tear has dried  
(Love me, love me)  
Can boys like you, boys like you  
Play with fire _

Yup. That was the last of them, Natsume won the battle. "YAY!" Mikan screamed in joy jumping up and down. "I shall take my revenge on you imbeciles soon." The demon leader said and was about to run away when Natsume made a circle of flames around the demon. Thus blocking it from escaping and then threw the dark aura sword on the demos back as though throwing darts. The demon screamed in agony and soon disintegrated into ashes. The rain stopped as cold wind blew the ashes away and Natsume stared at it then whispers to himself, "Not if I have mine first."

"Natsume-kun you were awesome!" the brunette came with her eyes sparkling in excitement. "You have a fever or something, from since when have you become nice to me." He asked not believing that the girl is smiling at him. She just smiles at him and sits down on the near by bench. She patted the bench as an indication to sit. He wasn't too exhausted but he sat anyways. She knew that even though she asks him how he summoned magic and how he could fight them so well, she won't get her answers, so she decided to let him be. Natsume still isn't convinced that Mikan is treating him like her close friend, so warmly. '_She must have got a fever from the rain.'_ The two enjoyed each others company silently. A part of him somewhat enjoys her. But the question now is does he like Mikan? '_Yeah right. When pigs fly._ He thought sarcastically.

"Natsume-kun, you finger is bleeding." Mikan said slightly in panic seeing blood flow of her new friend's finger like River Nile. Natsume closed his eyes and sighed. He's been in even worse situations than this. "Its nothing." He stated calmly. He felt something soft touch his finger. He opened his eyes to see **Mikan was sucking the blood from his finger**! For the first time in life Hyuuga Natsume blushed! His heart was like a race horse, Doki-Doki! A warm and fuzzy feeling tugged his stoned heart. He didn't open his mouth, what could he do? He simply liked that feeling.

Ladies and gentle men, pigs have started to fly!

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_So? How was it? I hope some one could explain to me what flames are, well any ways, I'll try uploading soon. Once again, thanx for the reviews! _

_Kairi_


	4. Me,a princess? Yeah right! part I

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!' 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!!

Thanks a lot for the reviews **Canrolii,** **Sie-sama,** **Leenstarz,****Kemcat16,** **ladalada **

**Musicangelanime ** and **Aleda12**; now that you mention it, it does sound like Kingdom Hearts, but the main point in my story is how Mikan's adventures are as a princess, there are a lot of differences though. Like Jinno x Yuka is my idea, Mikan travels along with them instead of being kidnapped; Natsume just begins to know her, Natsume's outfit is like that of Cloud from Final Fantasy Advent Children not Organization XIII and stuff. My story is totally different; you'll notice it in the later chapters, I can't make it with Disney characters right, I mean Cinderella and Natsume don't go together. Well thanks a million for your reviews!

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"Ohayo Anna-chan, Ohayo Nonoko-chan!" Mikan greeted cheerfully as she entered Hotaru's café; Princess Dine Café, and met her two working partners Hotaru hired. Anna and Nonoko were soft spoken and kind, they cared for Mikan and went to the same school as her except for the classes being different. Anna was the chef; she loved cooking and is quite pretty; with curly sugar pink hair left down and ocean blue eyes. While the waitress Nonoko on the other hand was a geek, she like chemistry and wasn't so good looking. Sumire would bully her too and thus she got the 'geek of the year awards' but despite that she is still outgoing and kind.

The girls greeted her back and resumed to work. "Ne, Mikan, tell us more about Natsume-kun." Anna and Nonoko said in union. '_I wonder if those two share the same brains' _Mika thought, "sigh, why do you guys wanna know?" she asked them back. Anna answered shyly as Nonoko giggled, "Well…he is the heartthrob of our school and all… but we promise we wouldn't tell anybody!" Mikan rolled her eyes; her two friends were always this way, always into romance and boys. She wondered how Natsume got so popular so soon.

"I and Natsume have twisted the word friendship in a different way, and that's for sure. He may seem dangerous, but deep inside him, he really is a nice guy except for one thing… HE STILL MAKES MY LIFE MISERABLE!!!"

The two twins laughed at Mikan actions. '_Those two would never get along'_ they thought. (Maybe they do share the same brains after all, hmm…) "Hey, where is Hotaru-chan anyways?" Nonoko asked.

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"IMAI! GIVE THAT BACK!!!" Ruka yelled as he ran after the stoic girl who too was running. She then stopped and pointed a picture of his; Ruka was dressed in a princess dress for a play that he did for an orphanage. But nobody he knew came so he thought he was safe unfortunately "IMAI YOU… YOU… HORRIBLE WITCH!" He yelled at her. "Oh my, I didn't know that." She said in a sarcastic tone. "But I'll give it to you for 200 yen.", and than ran off. Well you see, Hotaru rummaged through Mikan's old albums and found herself a new toy to play with.

"Hey, you two stop that." A familiar voice called out or rather commanded. It was none other than the flame caster; Natsume. To much of Ruka's surprise, Hotaru; the girl who blackmails her own teachers secretly, the one who didn't stop when Ruka chased her like crazy all around town and kept yelling 'stop' followed Natsume's every wimp. Likewise she obediently stopped. '_She would never ever listen to the king of the world but when it comes to Natsume…_' Ruka thought.

"Tonight is when we tell polka-dots that, she is the princess since we don't have much time left. We'll be taking her to a party in one of the five-star hotels around here in Tokyo, so that's when we tell her, got it?" Natsume asked. Hotaru nodded the Ruka asked the timings and place. Once Natsume left, everything was back to normal that is…

"IMAI, GIVE THAT BACK!!!"

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Dearest diary,

I ask you, what will you do if your biggest secret is discovered by some one? Would you try murdering them? I know I won't since jail food don't taste so good. Or with you try blackmailing them instead? If I try that, I might burn to crisp.

"I'm home" I yelled thinking that Natsume was home. Jii-chan has gone to see a sick friend while Ruka-pyon was searching for Hotaru (God knows why.) oka-san is on another date with Jin-Jin. I just hate it when she gives me the 'good news' (in her views), I rather would like to hear Jinno-sensei is gone bald. Now that's hilarious! Any ways when I went home, no one was there so I searched in all rooms. As I crossed Natsume's room, I heard voices.

"_Hn. I don't need to be told_." _It was Natsume's_ I thought. I didn't mean to eaves drop or anything but he seemed to be quite in a bad mood. He was talking on his black Motorola silvr cell phone as he was drying his hair with a towel. "_Don't you dare...or you might meet your worse." _Natsume hissed. I got to admit, when mad, it's the end of the world. "_I don't care so shut up, _**_dad_**_." _Natsume was talking to his father like that? When I wanted to hear his conversation even deeper and so I sneaked a little ahead. Unknowingly I being clumsier than a 2 year old slipped on the wet floor and made a loud 'THUD'

Natsume switched off his cell and glared at me as I was cursing my wounded nose. Why wouldn't I? I mean this is the third time. He told me, "You're quite an eaves dropper, aren't you?" I looked up nervously to apologize when…

"YOU'RE NAKED AAAHHHHHHH!!!" I pointed at him as though accusing him of murder my face painted red as he covered his ears. He was topless and in a pair of jeans while he clutched his towel tightly. He was defiantly in a bad mood and I was at the wrong time. Droplets of water from his hair fell on his body as he yelled at me, "YOU'RE THE ONE WHOSE PEEPING! NOW GET OUT!" I gulped hard. Natsume can be really scary sometimes. I unknowingly dropped my diary as I ran, scared.

It was an hour and Natsume didn't get out of his room. While I was in my room (which is just opposite to his) I wanted to check on him but if I did he may try using his magical powers at me. I think that's how the sword he used yesterday seemed to produce fire, not only that the monster was in a circle of flames because of him. I sighed and then went to check on him, this time with a broom in my hand. What!? Prevention is better than cure! I heard…I heard…laughter?

Quickly I ran into his room and saw… HYUUGA NATSUME WAS ACTUALLY LAUGHING!!?! He really was! I rubbed my eyes and blinked a couple of times. Then I smiled a contended smile. Friends are happy for friend's right! I watched him as he looked at me and laughed harder. I knew that it's a one in a life time scene, better than seeing solar eclipse. Wait a minute; in HIS grubby hands HE had MY DIARY! I AM SOOOOOOO DEAD!!! My jaw dropped open as he said within laughs the worst line of my pitiful, miserable, and torturing life, "Your mom and Jin-Jin are **_dating_**! Can't believe it! Maybe they might **_French kiss_**!" Somebody shoot me now. I felt like taking a bazooka and shooting him on the spot before I die first.

The next thing I knew was that I was down at his feet, clinging his leg as though my life depended on it (well it did) and begged for mercy as he tried shoving me off, "Oh please Natsume-san, don't tell anyone! Onegai (please) Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai! Onegai..." and so it went on.

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** M**ikan was fixing her self up as she looked into the mirror and Yuka sighed. '_This is it…its better off if the kids say it to her. I'm sure there's about to be a mess tonight. Might as well call the doctor if some one gets hurt.'_ The mother thought watching her daughter dress in… sweat shirt? Mikan ran downstairs and greeted Natsume and Ruka. Mikan smiled widely seeing the two handsome boys in tux, Natsume was in a black tux as his bow wasn't a bow but a red ribbon in a knot, his hair was in gel which made his hair a little messier than before and he changed his earrings into silver ones. While Ruka wore a white tux with a neat red bow, his hair was neat, but he wore white sports shoes and still he looked like a perfect gentle man.

"Hon, you can't go to a formal party in that, why didn't you tell me that you didn't have a dress?" Yuka asked motherly while Natsume rolled his eyes, '_It's because you always spend time on buying yourself a dress for frog man's dates.'_ Ruka excused himself to pick up Hotaru. As Ruka left, Yuka told Mikan that she can borrow her dress and accessories. "Sankyuu oka-san" Mikan said brightly and hugged her mother then dashed into her mom's room. She was in her mother's room for 15 minutes while Natsume was getting impatient. He went to her mother's room and banged the door, "Oi, baka youju! We're getting la—" Natsume was cut off when Mikan shyly came out of the room. He was stunned (though he didn't show it much.), the Mikan who wore pigtails and discount clothes was now…like a goddess.

Mikan's long silky hair was left down and had a diamond heart clip on the side of her hair. She wore a spaghetti strap tube dress that reached inches below her knew and stuck to her body showing her perfect figure. She had a 'V' shaped neck/collar and the dress cloth was ebony colored shining nylon with shining stones decorated at the edges. She wore a thin diamond necklace and two silver bracelets. Though she wore no make up, she was simply beautiful.

Mikan asked him sweetly "So how do I look?" she gave a small twirl. After few minutes of staring, he kept his cool and pointed out in a matter-of-fact-tone, "You're wearing boots." She wore a pair of…rock boots? "Yeah, well I can't walk in heels." She said sheepishly. "C'mon, we're gettin' late!" she dragged Natsume downstairs.

"My goodness, Mi-chan you look, how you kids say…hot!" The old man complimented to the blushing teen girl as Yuka's eyes twinkled, "My daughter has finally grown up!" she said wiping a tear. "Well we gotta go ja ne!" Mikan hurriedly says before her mother starts the real drama. She then dragged Natsume out side, once again. Yuka giggled saying to her father who nodded in agreement, "Those two…are meant to be."

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** T**he two kept walking in silence. Well Natsume is the not socializing type and Mikan was too cold to speak, literally! The brunette, whose hair swayed along the soft breeze sending chills down her spine, rubbed herself to keep warm as Natsume watched her. Any guy would remove his tux coat and gently give it to the freezing girl. _Anyone_ except for _Natsume_, that is. He was about to remove his tux coat and throw it at her face rudely. Right, its way better than ruining his pride, guys please take note of my sarcasm.

Mikan, obvious of what he was about to do held his wrist. "Huh?" was all that escaped his lips when the young princess took his arm and put it over her shoulders as she cuddled up to him. Natsume's heart started to beat fast like before and heat rose up to his cheeks within milliseconds. He stuttered a bit, "W-What are you d-doing?"

"Well, I felt cold and since you've got the power of fire, I guessed your body must be warm so…" she smiled serenely as Natsume blushed harder, he quickly turned his head to the other direction to hide his blush when he gripped onto her shoulder tightly and bringing her closer as though protecting her. He didn't know why but he felt a bit…_happy_? First time in his stinkin' life! He then took a glance at the girl in his arms smiling at him and telling him how he should try Howalons and stuff he didn't bother paying attention to. He looked at her rosy pink lips. Oh god! He might loose self control and do something perverted. '_What the hell is wrong with me?!' _He seriously wanted to commit suicide right now.

That's it, he took his arm of her roughly and threw his tux on her face like a rock which hurt her nose AGAIN not to mention totally embarrassing her in front of everybody. He coolly walked away from her. "I can never understand guys, I thought we were friends!" she yelled at no one in particular as she pouted and put her hands on her hips. "Hey! Wait for me!"

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"Where are Hyuuga and the idiot anyways?" The impatient Hotaru asked her self seated across the table with Ruka patiently and calmly sipping his tea. They were waiting in the ball for a long time…from the beginning of time to the end of time…for eternity…infinitive hours…for like ages…for five minutes! A whole FIVE MINUTES were WASTED! I'm sure you've realized what type of girl Imai Hotaru can be. The powerful witch was exquisitely beautiful in her evening gown. She was wearing an off shoulder dress that reached above her knees. I think she has a thing for the violet family since her dress was in violet with shades of lavender. She, unlike Mikan wore high heels and had a small lavender ribbon tied to the back of her hair. She put light eye shades and wore long ring-shaped earrings.

"Imai-san, as much as I know Natsume, I'm sure he'd ask **us** to tell Mikan-chan that she's the princess and all, I mean wouldn't that be…_bad_, right?" Ruka asked her as she stared out the window and replied, "What do you think I am, an idiot? –Sigh- I can not disobey Hyuuga so yeah." The fresh aroma of the ball and the musing piano music meant nothing to them as the two teens were thinking about the out come of telling _the princess_. '_Messy! It could get real messy!_' Ruka thought. They had known Sakura Mikan for years now and after the incident Mikan had to leave Nagoya, no way they'd want to die young! " No worries, Imai-san, I'll take care of it." Ruka says winking as he turned to watch a young dance couple. "Oh goodie." She said rolling her eyes.

Mikan and Natsume entered the ball. Mikan's eyes twinkled as she saw the huge ball. Many rich couples of all ages flooded the place with decent talks and beautiful dresses. Waiters served vine as she smelled the rose perfume and admired the long red curtains hung around, she walked over the red carpet in the centre giving her a majestic look already.

"Hey guys! This place is sooo cool! Sugoi, ne?" Mikan asked Hotaru and Ruka. Ruka smiled as he like gentle man pulled out a chair for Mikan to sit. She blushed at his kindness and thanked him. They were seated now it was death time, I mean truth time. Tension filled up the atmosphere as the three glared at each other as an indication to start. Thank god the waiter came and served them with complimentary cookies and shrimps on toothpicks or they're eyes would hurt from glaring. Mikan gave the surrounding a mood maybe a little too much of a mood…Hotaru and Natsume stared disgustingly at the brunette gallop like a glutton figuring if her twin is the real princess.

As soon as she was done, god answered Ruka's prayers and sent in another waiter, "Excuse me madam, but which vine shall you take?'" he asked staring at the two pretty girls as soon as he was done with the boys orders. "Er…I'm sorry you've mistaken me us as an adult. We're not yet 20." Mikan replied. As soon as the waiter was gone, Ruka gave his charming smile and complimented Mikan to lessen the tension among the three teens, "Mikan-chan, you look quite beautiful and sophisticated today that even the waiter mistook you as an adult." Natsume shot a glance at HIS girl blushing over some one else. "Tch, stop flirting, we came here for a purpose." Natsume said obviously irritated. Ruka nudged him and asked, "Jealous?" only to receive a death glare from the flame caster. "Okay, I'll be quite." Ruka said with a sweat-drop.

"Here you are, sir." The waiter told Natsume as he placed his vine on the table. "N-Natsume-kun…y-you drink!" Mikan said surprised. 'Yeah, so?" he retorted with an angry face. He doesn't want anybody to come close to him…he doesn't want to…hurt her. So it's best if he keeps distance from her and anybody else who tries to get too close to him. Mikan shivered with his cold attitude, _'and to think this guy could summon fire!'_ she thought. "Eto… y-you're to young s-so—" Natsume cut her off rudely, "This is **my** life, **I** do whatever **I** want, so do me a favor and shut up." Mikan's eyebrows twitched in annoyance as she faked a smile and said, "F-Fine with me." Natsume then called out Hotaru as an indication to explain to Mikan, "Imai, I'm getting irritated with this idiot, you know what to do." Mikan's face turns red with anger as she constantly repeated to herself, '_control, control you're temper Mikan! Natsume is a good guy inside' _

Then thinking quickly Ruka turned towards Hotaru and asked, "Hey wanna dance?" Hotaru blinked, before she could say some thing, Ruka dragged her to the dance floor. She realized by then that they could escape the terrible _explaining_ by dancing. "Aw…isn't that sweet." Mikan said. "They're doing it on purpose." Natsume muttered under his breath. He doesn't want to talk to her, not after the walk incident. When ever he looks at her, he begins to feel different. And he certainly knows it spells trouble. But let today be an exception. "Oi I need to tell you something important…"

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_How was it? I hope it was good enough…and wasn't so mushy. I'll try updating soon. And guys please keep reviewing. _

_Kairi_


	5. Me, a princess? Yeah right! part II

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?

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Music is simply soothing, giving a warm sensation, a warm feeling and a heavenly sensation. When you hear music, you feel lost. Everything else doesn't matter any more. You feel like you want to hear the tune till your death and stay in the wonderful world of music. Maybe love can be defined as music of the heart.

Hotaru was in deep thought closing those traumatizing orbs hearing her inside scream how unfair this world was, cry in loneliness, detest life to its end, and like other demons; crave for a heart. Surprisingly she couldn't hear anything. Why?

Because arms of bliss enveloped her petite waist as her violet streaked hair swung with the beat of music.

You see as every little girl would wait for their prince charming, likewise Hotaru secretly wished that too though never excepting it. She needed to know what the word 'love' meant. She felt a warm and happy feeling whenever around her best friend. She figured out that was perhaps called friendship.

But she felt now was a deeper feeling, her pale skin was turning rosy as she turned her head low so as to not prove the theory of the opposite party; _Imai Hotaru is **blushing**_? She felt her heart beat faster as the blonde haired gentleman swung her slightly making it a memorable night. Wait, she didn't have a heart. She frowned slightly at the thought. She was mere toy for Natsume Hyuuga, a mere toy that's all. She doesn't deserve emotions, friends, _love… _

Her frown caught the attention of her dancing partner who looked at with concerned eyes, "You 'Kay?" a male voice was heard softly. She knew the only thing that could save her pride and image was… lie "yeah" she mouthed in a barely audible. Ruka knew it was no use to stretch the conversation so turning to the table where the princess and her knight in the shinning armor were seated said, "World war III is about to begin."

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**T**he innocent brown orbs were beginning to line up with tears. "Y-You're saying that those creatures that attacked me y-yesterday are demons and nobodies from the underworld? And your magical powers are called a-alices?" she continued swallowing hard as a tear rolled her cheeks. The now-not-wearing-pigtails beauty lowered her head and said the line proving how unfair the world is, "Hotaru and Ruka-pyon are n-not supposed to e-exist?"

"How the heck do I fit in all of this?"

He sighed and placed his half drunken vine on the table as he face her coldly, Mikan was getting more and more nervous looking at his serious face.

_'Oh no, not now…please kami-sama!'_ she mentally prayed as her vision got slightly blurred and no sound could be heard though she tried her best not to show it to Natsume.

He was explaining, she could tell. His lips moved, thank god she heard him say a few words like; princess, different, disappear. The rest was blank, unfortunately she… hiccupped.

Hic…hic…hic ...hic… She never hiccupped this loud ever before. It was so loud that people turned from their tables and stared at her. The American tourists were quite pesky, nosing into other peoples business, she thought as she noticed that those tourists were staring at her some giggling and some make mocking face. Natsume by her side was terribly irritated as he glared angrily at the soon-to-be-princess who embarrassed him as well. '_She shouldn't have eaten like a glutton_.' He thought as he poked the hiccupping maniac.

"Umm…-HIC - Natsume? Can –HIC- I use the –HIC-washroom?" she asked hiccupping in her loudest pitch ever as he grunted. She ran to the washroom closing her mouth. She washed her face and wiped it with a towel. So far she only knows about everything but her being the princess. She looked at her face, in the view mirror, "Finally it stopped." She said to her self in relief. _'Okay, smile at him and act nice, he is a good guy…I think._' She mentally told herself as she got up and seated herself opposite to Natsume's. She was glad that the American tourists were replaced with Japanese tourists. They wouldn't mock her or anything.

"Hey, Natsume! Sorry to keep you waiting." the optimistic girl said smiling cheerfully as Natsume mumbled putting his chin on his hand, "I was quite hoppin' you wouldn't come back." A vein popped on her head then a sigh escaped her soft lips. '_Why does this guy ruin my life?'_ "Well anyways, you okay with that?" he asked her. "Huh? Oh yeah, I perfectly understand that umm…ahh…--" Natsume cut her off aggressively slamming the table as his wine almost dropped on the ground. "So you weren't listening, you idiot!" he sighed as the brunette got scared and the dancing couple a.k.a. Hotaru and Ruka looked at them intently.

"Look…you're not just a normal person. As you've noticed those demons and nobody's are after you because you posses certain powers or Alice's that we call. You're a multi. We're not sure of how many but one of your Alice is to travel through different dimensions."

Okay, to much to digest for our poor Mikan, she fished the cup of water in front of her and drank it so she wouldn't faint. He then took another glass and poured wine while closing his eyes and continuing.

"Well you're the princess of Kingdom Alice; a far of kingdom that doesn't belong in earth. Only royal's blood-lines are born with multi-Alice's. You're dad; Sakura Masaya was the king who died of cancer. Now you're the future heir of the throne but unfortunately the nobodies that call themselves A.A.O. started to capture Alice territories when your dad died. You have to revive your kingdom back, and for that collect the Alice stones that have been shattered in different worlds, so…you'll have to travel with us."

Her jaw was dropped open as she paled. Natsume almost choked his drink looking at her funny expression. Nothing seemed to come out of her mouth; she knew Masaya was her dad but a king? She never knew that? '_AND I'M A DAMN PRINCESS! WHY DIDN'T ANYONE BOTHER TELLIN' ME THAT BEFORE? WHY?' _questions like that ran through her head. Nobody bothered to tell her that before and now when her kingdoms under attack they search for her and tell the most unbelievable line. Mikan stood up making a loud screech with her chair.

"WHY ON EARTH MUST I LISTEN TO YOU? YOU HAVE BEEN NOTHING BUT A JERK MR.HYUUGA!!!" She yelled not caring that the ball dance was stopped and all, I mean all the people from infants to old men stared at them. Natsume on the other hand, stood up and was about to drag the yelling princess.

Unfortunately, she took the vine bottle on the table, lifted it over his head and poured the whole bottle over him. "I never want to see you ever again!" She stomped away as people who saw the whole scene gave her space knowing her current mood. Some started to whisper and some said things out loud like 'man, it looks like things didn't work out between the two. Poor guy…' or 'he must've been dumped harshly or something...'

"Whoa!" Ruka told his stoic dance partner. "I'm dead sure this is the FIRST time Natsume's actually ditched by a girl!" He said as though he saw the Titanic ship sink in action. _'And he calls himself a friend.'_ Hotaru thought as she slapped her forehead. The two rushed to him.

There Natsume was standing as he gave a dangerous aura and the crowd backend away in fear. "N-Natsume? You 'kay?" Ruka tried not sounding scared as he looked at Natsume with concerned eyes. Natsume covered his eyes with his bangs, droplets of vine dripped from his hair as he replied softly but I warn you, his voice gave the coldest of chills down their spines.

"Remind me this so that when I find her…I'll roast her alive."

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**"T**oday went so wrong." Mikan mumbled as she stared at the starry sky. Oh how she admired it with the bottom of her heart. She sighed and resumed looking at the twinkling stars. "Maybe I was a bit harsh…"

"Of course you were." A voice caught her attention. Swiftly turning back Mikan found herself staring at a pair of beautiful yet dangerous eyes, "Hotaru! Gosh, you scared the life outta me!"

Mikan said as she forced a smile, waving casually. "You don't have to pretend. You're quite disturbed by the fact that you're the princess and I'm a… nobody." Hotaru said in the last word as a whisper.

"N-No, I mean…" she couldn't lie, not because Hotaru was like a lie detector but by the fact that she loved Hotaru too much to lie to her and besides she needed someone to comfort her so she, "EVEN IF MY LIFE DEPENDED ON IT, I'LL NEVER BE A PRINCESS!!!" Hotaru smiled inwardly, Mikan has never change and she secretly hopes she wouldn't change either.

"Flash news Mikan… no one told that you were princess because no one knew. Hyuuga and the royals are the only ones who knew it right after they found you're father's diary that was 3 years ago. Your presence was hidden to the world, according to Yuka-san's request. You if you don't take up the throne now and travel with us, innocent lives will die due to the dark spell caste on your rightful land."

Mikan didn't have confidence within herself; she lowered her head as crystalline tears sparkled down her cheeks, "Demo…I…I…I really c-can't. I can't c-carry such a b-burden on my back…I-I'm not s-strong enough." She cried choking slightly as she covered face in her hands.

She then felt two hands on her shoulders, Hotaru made the crying princess face her, "Mikan…" she started as her eyes turned softer and showed how much she cared for her friend, only Mikan was able to see her soft side once a while. "No one told you that you were weak…you once said that love is a power that gives one strength." She said as she raised a thumb and wiped her tear. The stars glistened on the two beauties as they shared their thoughts. "You have me don't you."

"Hotaru…" Hotaru looked at the starry sky. "If you don't then I'll…disappear." Hotaru said. Mikan smiled all of a sudden, surprising the stoic girl a bit, "I told you that I wouldn't be a dress wearing, tea-sipping girly princess even if my life depended on it…but since your life depends on it…when are we gonna leave, huh? I can't wait!" Hotaru smiled and let the brunette hug her.

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**"S**o its tomorrow, huh?" Natsume said to himself with black nylon sheets covering him as he stared at the ceiling. "This is boring…" he said as he ruffled his hair. He got out his room and jogged down the stairs. He looked around his surroundings observing that no ones around. Well, Ruka had to chase Hotaru again, the gramps of the house had some friends to meet and Yuka sadly was on another date.

The usual.

Natsume then plopped himself on the couch nearby and made himself comfortable, its not that they needed to rest since after traveling through each world though they would come back home. He switched on the TV and surfed through the channels but couldn't find any thing nice, "Boring…" he snorted. He hated to be bored. Sometime he would think of burning her strands of hair. But ever since the incident at the ball, he would definitely NOT talk to her.

It's been two days, and every five minutes Mikan would come up to his room and apologize saying how sorry she was and she would do anything to make it up to him. Once she even said that she would try frog legs if that would make him forgive her, and even if it was Jinno-sensei's frog, she would eat it.

'_Yeah right_!' he thought. He would slam the door shut on her face and try making her life like hell, STILL she would apologize. Once when she kept pestering him, out of anger he took a nearby pie and smashed it on her face. STILL she would smile at him rubbing her sore bottom saying, "I know you're mad and I don't blame you. But I do hope we could be friends again."

He was confused by her sweet and friendly behavior and cheerful attitude. She was unique though. '_Does her brain work anti-clockwise?'_ he thought as he changed channels. Good thing his polka-dots came to brighten his day. '_Think of the idiot and the idiot is here.'_ He thought sarcastically rolling his eyes as she plopped on to the same couch in a bouncy way.

"Heeey Nat-su-me!" she said in a musical way. Yet again she would be ignored and he would usually get table tomato sauce or pie and put it on her face and walk away from her.

"Damn it…I used up all of the sauce." She heard him mutter as she giggled. She stuck her tongue out playfully then she watched him go into the kitchen mumbling something about 'one day I'll line up the entire princess' and shoot them'. She felt bad. She felt bad because of what she did. Even after all of what she did, he still didn't harm her, not even lay a finger.

**"N**atsume-kun..." The brunette called softly as Natsume came out the Kitchen, he was hungry and there was nothing to eat. He was about to leave the house for a restaurant but before that Mikan clutched onto his arm with her small hands. "Natsume-kun I…I'm r-really sorry…" She said with her head low and with the verge of tears. She couldn't take it anymore, guilt was eating her up. She wanted to befriend Natsume again. She cared for him a lot even if they only met a few days ago.

He ignored and tried freeing his right arm from her grip, but she clutched on tighter. To his surprise she began crying, tears spilled down her porcelain face as she spoke to him almost choking, "I-I'm really sorry, okay? I-I know what I did was wrong b-but no one bothered to tell me t-that I was a…so I put all my a-anger on top of you. I'm terrible…and I-I really am s-sorry." She burst out crying as he stared at her, she was so simple-minded; worrying about others than herself. He looked away as he handed her a towel to wipe her tears and muttered, "Baka."

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A girl was seen opening the fridge as a boy stood a little away from her. **"N**e, Natsume-kun, oka-san, didn't leave us something to eat, how's about I order pizza." Yup, the two were back in action; as in they made up. It was evening and the two were all alone, starving. "Pizza?" Natsume asked as though it was a strange being from the sky.

"No…way." Mikan breathed out. She asked "You haven't eaten a PIZZA? What are you?" He knew what a pizza was but never bothered trying one out. He shrugged and looked down at her (she was inches shorter than him.) "I've got better thing to do." He replied honestly.

"Well, you gotta try one now that I'm here." She said smiling widely while she blinked. Then hurriedly ran to the phone and called him, "Natsume-kun, there must be a few yen on top of the refrigerator, how much is it."

"120 yen." He replied as she said 'that will do.' Mikan came smiling into the kitchen and told the ruby-eyed teen, "They have a lot of customers today so they might delay our order but no worries, we could play somethin' to time-pass."

"Play? Tch, I'm no kid- unlike you.' He teased her. She playfully hit his chest, "Itai!" she arched in pain as he stuck out his tongue. He had a built up body and her tiny punches couldn't hurt, except for the puncher that is. She then dragged him by the wrist to the living room, and took a box of scrabble. "Let's play scrabble!" she said in excitement forcibly dragging the sighing teen.

After minutes of playing they finally got over the game, "Are you SURE you never played BEFORE?" the mousy-brown haired girl asked emphasizing her words angrily as she looked at Natsume who mocked her with his trade mark smirk. "You're a sore loser. Face the facts; _I'm_ a _genius_." He said coolly as he dug his hand into his pockets. Mikan gasped and then started to clean the game mumbling something like, 'Natsume' and 'biggest cheater'

**Ding dong. **

"Pizza is here, pizza is here, pizza is here." She chanted childishly with pizza in her hands as she went to the Natsume who was now surfing through diff. channels. "Here try some." He took the cheesy substance, stared at it then at the smiling Mikan; at last he took a bite. Mikan nudged him winking, "Ne, Natsume, it tastes good right?"

His reply was a simple 'whatever' but Mikan knew better, she looked at him with her eyes gleaming and smiled telling him something that surprised Natsume, "You shouldn't waste your life, Natsume-kun. If there is some thing that could make you happy…I'll try my best to get it for you."

"Don't get too mushy."

While Natsume changed channels Mikan told him to change the previous one, "Natsume put that movie, it sounds interesting…" her voice was evidently filled with enthusiasm. "It's some damn movie about kissing." The male told slightly disgusted.

"Oh come on!" she stretched the topic as she snatched the remote. She covered herself with a blanket with the lights off. '_Seems like Ruka's gonna take long…_' Natsume glanced at the clock.

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They watched the movie together and for a 'kissing movie' it wasn't so bad. "Hey Natsume-kun, whatever happened to Meg…Natsume?" The princess covered in a cozy blanket looked at her friend beside her. "He looks so…cute." Mikan mumbled blushing.

Gosh he was asleep! Her cheeks flushed looking at him; he was sleeping so peacefully with his arms crossed over his chest and his head leaned on the sofa while one of his legs was on top of the sofa while the other was down.

"He must be cold…" she had a sudden urge to touch him but instead she pulled his body gently closer to hers and laid his head on her shoulders. She then wrapped her blanket on the sleeping boy and her as she laid her head on his and drifted to sleep.

After a while, the flame caster fluttered his eyes open, someone's warm breath tickled his neck, certain warmth he enjoyed, something that he never experienced in his life. Nonchalantly, he tilted his head a little, and eventually found Mikan and himself cuddled up; his cheeks began to heat up as he stared at her angelic face.

He always made sure that he tends to be more detached, less emotional, and less open about his feeling, and yet there was something about this girl that made him feel so different. A smile etched his face in the dark as a tint of red surpassed his cheeks.

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_This chapter is rewritten, I just feel that I needed to change a few parts, but the plot's the same, so those who already read this chapter, its okay if you don't read it now. Wait…I should have told that beforehand itself! _

_Kairi_


	6. Feelings and Mysteries

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!' 

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!!

_Thank you; **Crystal the shining star, Kemcat16, Impura, Ladalada,**_**_R4Nd0m-Ch1cK-, nastya217, musicangelanime_**_ and to everyone who read my story. _

_Thanks a million for your reviews guys, oh and forgive me if I seemed to defend Inchou; I just needed some one to fill that character up. Oh well, I'm so evil MWUHAHAHA! Ahem…back to the chappie; _

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Natsume Hyuuga lazily got off his bed as a sigh escaped his lips. Last night he left Mikan in her room before Yuka or any one else sees him embracing Mikan while sleeping on the couch no matter how much his heart begged him to stay that way a little longer. Because a) Yuka would go around chanting how big her daughter has grown embarrassing the two. b) Mikan would call him a pervert despite her being the one to pull him to her shoulders and c) Hotaru would blackmail him for eternity.

But he knew one thing for sure; _he was in **love** with her_. He's no idiot unlike Mikan to take so long to neither realize that nor deny the fact he fell for one who he hated once. The moment he whispered to her about how he has began to love life, he accepted his feelings for HIS Mikan though they met for only a few days, I mean c'mon Romeo and Juliet fell in love the first day they met in the movie Titanic. '_Wait, isn't Romeo and Juliet from Shakespeare?'_ he thought then shrugged and found himself walking towards the living room.

"Ahh…Natsume-kun, ohayo. I'll make breakfast as soon as possible." Yuka announced as Natsume nodded in return. The ruby eyed lad took out a manga that Mikan bought him saying that he needs to enjoy life and not sit like a dead corpse all day. He has to admit, ever since the tangerine entered his life, she seemed to brighten up his dark heart. Oh, and manga's are interesting.

A tired looking Ruka greeted the stoic guy. He seated himself beside his friend and kept yawning and stretching his hands, which of course disturbed Natsume. "Ruka, why were you late yesterday?" the nonchalant boy inquired as the blonde almost dropped his morning coffee. "W-Who m-me?" he stuttered pointing himself and laughing nervously making Natsume's suspicion even deeper, "well…I-I umm…wasn't feeling so s-sleepy so I thought I-I'd take a walk before returning." Natsume knew better than to believe that but if he doesn't want to tell the truth, let him be. _'Sorry dude, I can't tell you that Imai blackmailed me to work at McDonalds wearing the…chicken costume._' He thought apologetically with embarrassment.

"Ohayo, Hyuuga." A voice came from behind the couch. Without bothering to turn back, Natsume asked straight forwardly, "When do we leave?"

"Any time you wish." Hotaru wore her witch uniform and had her witch craft book along with her too

There was silence. Hotaru was tweaking with her magical laptop, Ruka was petting Usagi-chan while Natsume was busy reading his manga. Silences…silence…silence…. Yuka couldn't take it anymore. "Ne, could you go and help otou-san waking Mikan-chan up?" they agreed and jogged upstairs to her room. There they faced a rather girly door, hot pink painted and a wood piece abruptly nailed on the door while a curly handwriting was written with glitters on it saying, 'This is Sakura Mikan's room, no one's allowed in especially NO NATSUME ALLOWED!' Ruka glanced at the irritated Natsume and told him, "According to the board, we're not allowed in." the ruby-eyed teen shrugged and put his index finger on the board and soon it turned into flames and disintegrated to ashes. "What board?" he replied as he twisted the door knob and opened the door.

"MI-CHAN!!! WAKE UP! WAKE UP OR NO BREAKFAST!!!" an old man was seen clashing two ringing alarm clocks to get the brunette awake but to no avail. Ruka chuckled when they saw/heard Mikan talk in her dreams, "Arigatou Mr. Goo-goo for inviting me to this wonderful tea party (moan) I too think Jin-Jin married his frog…" Her grandfather sighed; his gawky yet energetic fifteen year old teenage grand-daughter's the princess of kingdom Alice. When he first heard that, he was in the toilet for 4 hours. "Ugh! I give up!" he exclaimed and stormed away.

Natsume observed his beloved for a few minutes, she was sleeping so peacefully on her heart shaped pillows, her silky hair wasn't messy but spread all over the pillows and her legs peeped out her bed sheets, in short she was just like an angel, well almost an angel…"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! MY HAIR IS ON FIRE!!?!" Mikan yelled on top of her lungs jumping up and down on her bouncy bed while Ruka tries to calm her down.

"HYUUGA NATSUME! ONE DAY MY ROYAL HINEY SHALL KICK YOUR PATHETIC UN-ROYAL HINEY! YOU JUST WAIT AND SEE!!!" She once again screeched holding her burned strand of hair. Pissed of, she marched to her bathroom and slammed the door loud. "Are you sure she's the princess?!" Natsume asked the two. They proceeded to the living room when Yuka told them that breakfast was served.

Soon a high pitched voice burst in the living room brightening up the day, "Ohayo Hotaru! Ohayo Natsume-kun! Ohayo Ruka-pyon! Ohayo jii-chan! Ohayo oka-san!" the lovable tangerine greeted ever so cheerfully. She was about to gallop her food like a 'glutton' (in Hotaru's views) but before she take a bite, her cell phone rang. She excused herself and picked it up.

"Moishi? Moishi? (Hello?)" she asked sweetly unaware of what's next.

"_Is this Mikan Sakura speaking_?" a cold voice said that sent chills down the poor teenagers spine.

"H-Hai, a-anata wa dare?" she stammered a bit.

_"Oh, Mikan-hime… who I am doesn't matter, what I want matters best_." He said totally freaking out the princess. She replied with a simple "huh?"

_"Your highness, please tell Natsume-kun, that I have what he wants's so he better not try some thing stupid or else... If he wants an address, you could tell him that I'm his **dad**…_ (The phone was cut.)"

Her eyes widen, she could tell that it was a threat. But why would Natsume's dad threaten his own blood? She knew that Natsume was hiding something, something BIG. She realized that the gang heard it since they were seated close to her. She bit her lower lip and looked nervously at her stoic friends. Tension and deafening silence engulfed them. "Don't tell me…" Hotaru said with her voice trailing off. "It's him." Was all Natsume could say. High tension filled the atmosphere as the clueless Ruka and Mikan felt uncomfortable. Ruka nudged Mikan to start a conversation up.

"Ne, Hotaru, Natsume-kun, Ruka-pyon, let's leave for the different world after launch. Having launch together would be fun; my treat!"

"Ne, Mikan-chan, you sure you gonna pay?" Ruka asked unsure. "Nope, I thought I'll ride you guys and hoped you'd pay." She replied in glee only to get smacked by Hotaru's heavy book. Yup, things are back to normal thanks to the tangerine heroin err… princess.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… ………….. **

**"T**his feels so good!" Mikan smiled from ear to ear inhaling the fresh breeze. Natsume grunted, he was stuck with Mikan AGAIN, because Hotaru went blackmailing Ruka AGAIN! "I wonder if Imai's money physic…" he muttered as he watched the optimist girl skip around like a two year old go around squealing 'kyaa' or 'Uwaah!' and stuff. Gees, they were only in a park! Since launch was about two hours away, she forced him to come with her to a nearby park. She suddenly halted and let out a gasp of what her eyes showed. "Oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Where do I hide? Dokoa (Where?)?" she hid behind Natsume and violently shook her head left and right searching for a suitable place to hide.

There stood a nerdy boy with short sandy-brown hair and thick glasses that hid his brown orbs. He wore free-size loose shirt with his collar buttons with shorts and kept sneezing and wiping his nose with his shirt sleeve, heck even his hands were covered in mucus.

"Who's that?" Natsume asked disgusted when he saw the nerd accidentally sneeze over an old lady who screamed, "oh Jesus! I need a bath!"

"Why should I tell you?" Mikan yelled in frustration still hiding behind Natsume. "Because I'm hot." He said coolly as though it was the most obvious thing in the world while looking at his nails. She snorted and asked him back, "Which maniac said that?"

"Fan-girls."

"Sigh, there's no arguing with you… you sure you wanna know?" he nods his head folding his arms & then gets pulled by Mikan behind a tree. "He is--" Natsume leans closer to hear her.

"He is--" she notices the glare he was giving her and moves away. Then again he followed and she frowned.

"He is Tobita Yuu whom we call Inchou, the class president and honor student of our grade. He's really good at science and stuff. But there's only one problem…he seems to show symptoms of –gulp- _love_ towards me." She ended in embarrassment. Natsume first blinked and then sucked his lower lip trying his best not to laugh. No one has been successful in making him laugh, but there is always a first time. If it wasn't Inchou but some cool guy instead, he would've been serious toast by now. Mikan fumed with rage when he complimented them to be 'The Oscar wining Nerdy Couple of the year Awards' she was about to strangle him to death when she heard, "Mikan-san!" that could mean only one thing; Inchou has found her.

"Shit!" Mikan cursed under her breath while Natsume smirked totally wanting to see the lovey-dovey moments.

**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...… **

**"I**mai-san, is that really you?" the blonde asked suspiciously yet a bit bewildered seeing the ice queen, horrifying, emotionless, money-craze, most despicable person on earth handing him an…ice-cream? "Who are you? What have you done to poor Imai?" he practically yelled at her not knowing the consequences to face. '_I think my tongue slipped when I called her poor, which s soooo not true.' _The 'I-know-your-a-clone-of-Imai' was irritated; with a free hand she took a cup of lemonade beside her and…

_SPLASH! _

"So it really is you, Imai." The now soaked with lemonade Ruka took the ice-cream and waited for her to speak his purpose. "You see I need you to help me sneak in to a shooting studio to picture Reo Mouri, the famous star. Don't think I'm interested in gossip, we're doing it for profit." Hotaru then points at a bunch of girls yelling stuff like, 'Kyaa, Reo-sama is here, if only I could see his picture.' And 'I'll do anything to have his pictures!'

Ruka sweat-drops and then sighs, "Your wish is my command."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

**"**You smell pretty with the Le Fleurage perfume to hide that hideous smell you emit after sweating." Inchou was holding Mikan's hands and _showing how much he loves Mikan-san_, in Mikan's views _showing how much he can embarrass Mikan-san_. '_Can he just wipe the snot oozing from his nose first?_' Mikan thought sweat-dropping. Natsume amusingly watched from afar leaning on a tree trunk while a crowd of people surrounded the two snickering and mocking. She seemed to insult Inchou-baka but he keeps taking that as comments.

'_Why the bloody #$& hell does this happen to me? Wait a minute, how the heck does he know that I use Le Fleurage? He is a STALKER?!?_' she looks at Natsume pleadingly which of course he ignores, '_Why that bloody #$&!!! IT IS HIS ENTIRE BLOODY FAULT' _she thought as she gritted her teeth and Inchou-baka kept chanting his love-whatever-it-is. Well, it was Natsume's fault in a way, he on purpose pushed poor Mikan into Inchou's snotty arms.

"Oh, Mikan-san, your high pitch voice rated above 20,000 herds that is also known as Ultra-sonic vibrations seems like that of an angel." What the heck, she isn't here to learn physics?! Some maniac from the crowd yelled, "French kiss ya dork!" that moment she felt like throwing up and murdering that maniac while Natsume chuckled not being able to control his laughter. Inchou-baka was about to kiss her, puckered his lips and all only to get shoved off by the pissed Mikan and meet the cold cement floor. Oh, the yelling maniac met her shoe on his face. '_THERE IS NO WAY I'D LET MY FIRST KISS BE STOLEN BY ANYONE JUST LIKE THAT!!!' _

She couldn't take it anymore, she stomped pass the Inchou-baka whose face was still smashed on the floor and stood in front of Natsume. Her eyes glinted with an evil look and a light bulb flashed above her head. Natsume didn't like the sleazy look she gave either, to make things wore she rubbed her hands together that could only one thing; she was hatching an evil plan.

"What are you smiling about baka?" only to get the worse, "Natsuuuu-chaaaaan, my love, my one and only true luuuuuuve!" she exclaimed making sure Inchou-baka is hearing this.

He immediately pulled her and touched her forehead, '_hmm…temperature seems normal, what is polka up to?'_ "Quite the act, polka." He hissed.

"Oh, Natsu-chan, why I'm telling the truth. After all we have been through!" She then clings on to his arms and giggles then shows those gleaming eyes just like Inchou-baka, "you are my heart, my soul, my EVERYTHING! Oh, I'm madly in love with you!" '_Gawd! I can't believe I'm doing this…'_

People who watch Inchou-baka now began to crowd over Mikan and Natsume. Inchou-baka gave an awkward glance but his eyes still plastered at the scene.

"Polka-dots" he said with his eyes twitching visibly. Of course he would love to hear those worlds, only if she meant it (and not being a drama queen).

"Oh Natsu-chan, I will love you no matter how cold you re from the outside" Natsume then began to bang his head on the tree trunk.

"No matter how much of a jerk you may be!" Natsume banged his head again.

"No matter how…how umm… how perverted you are!" Natsume's head made in contact with the trunk again. "Poka-dots…" he was getting dizzy. His blurry vision transformed to make him see about six Mikans standing there, oh the more the horror! "Polka-dots" he moaned trying to get his vision straight.

"Oh my dearest Natsu-chan, how much you mean to me!"

"Polka-dots"

She snapped him, "what?" he looked at her like she was an alien and replied with a death glare,

"You hurting me"

"Oh, gomene." She just realized she had been squeezing the pulp out of him. She resumed back to her drama, melo-dramatically she put a hand above her head and one on her chest in a damsel in distress position and shouted to the whole world, "Oh, Natsu-chan, can you not see my love! It flows longer than river Nile, I---" she was cut off when Inchou-baka stormed out the park. Mikan beamed, "Phew, thank god Inchou-baka is gone!"

Natsume had a smirk plastered on his handsome face and said teasingly, "So you've got hots for me, eh?"

"In your dreams, you pervert!" she growled at him with a shaking balled fist. After the scene cleared up, they go in search of Hotaru and Ruka since it's about time. Natsume soooooo needs to get back on her, gees he's beginning to sound like her even.

He starts up the conversation after minutes of searching, "It's not nice to use me in driving away your probs."

"Why you liked it?" she said rolling her eyes. But she never expected what he would say next, "What if I said yes?" Mikan's jaw dropped open a bit; her eyes gleamed as heat rose to her cheeks and her heart pounded crazy. '_W-What is wrong with me? W-why is my heart beating crazy a-and my cheeks are burning? It's the same feeling when I made h-him sleep on m-my shoulders…'_

Her heart seemed to skip a beat when he looked at her so seriously and came closer to her. Closer…closer…closer…_'I-Is he gonna k-kiss m-me?_' Not knowing what to do, she shut her eyes tightly. He smirked at her, "Next time make sure you don't show your panties when jumping a lot, _strawberry prints_." He then walked ahead of the dumbfounded/ blushing Mikan. She tried her best to register what he said, 'Strawberries? Wait t-t-t-that's my!?"

"**NAAAAATSUUUUMMEEEEE NO HENTAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!" **

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

**L**et's go check on Hotaru and Ruka till those two are done with their arguments, shall we? Well the scene started with a girl with jet black hair was seen with strap of her camera hung on her slender neck as it bounced on her chest. The other was a blonde boy whose hair flew along the wind and his one hand tightly gripped on the ladder's steel rod while the other had a video camera. Ruka and Hotaru were sneaky lads I tell you, they could even sneak into the president of U.S. house. They were alerted of any guards before they landed themselves on the roof.

"Reo…huh? Where have I heard that name before?" Hotaru asked herself softly as she helped Ruka open the trap door on the roof. The two then slid themselves in and landed with a soft thud. Hotaru scanned around for any trouble as Ruka made sure the video cams were dead, thanks to Hotaru's magic portion of course. Hotaru focuses her camera and pokes her eyes into it. They then heard footsteps from below and quickly duck not allowing the man in shadows see them. The two tried to see the arrival's face unfortunately he seemed to love the dark. But they still could hear him.

_"Hello Shinoe, it's me…Reo."_ His voice sounded cold without any emotion, his face couldn't be seen as he kept walking to and fro in the dark, _"are the demons ready in A.A.O. headquarters?" _

'_What's with this conversation_?' Ruka thought as he leaned closer to hear more. Hotaru removed her eyes from the camera and tried her best to see the person's face because she recognizes that voice.

"_Hmm…no one could stop us today. Not even Hyuuga and his meddling friends from capturing the princess, what's her name again? Oh yeah**, Mikan Sakura**._" Ruka's eyes widen, just who was this guy? God answered his prayers and Reo stepped out from the dark revealing his identity.

He had brownish-burgundy hair but surprisingly, he had the same hairstyle and violet orbs just like that of Hotaru, Ruka noticed. He wore a green sleeveless tank top with leather pants and a dark fur cape with gloves. Hotaru immediately recognized him; she whispered to herself, "Voice God…is Reo?" this caught Ruka's attention.

All of a sudden a camera crashed on the ground right in front of Reo. He swiftly looked up to see Hotaru who gasped with her hands on her mouth a confused Ruka. "Oh, so how have you been Hotaru? I see you have brought your friend along too, I wonder if **_Kuro Neko_** is doing well…"

"Shut up!" she yelled as he smirked. Ruka was getting more and more confused, who is _him_? And who is _Kuro Neko_? But one thing he knew for sure; THEY HAD TO GET THE HELL OUTTA THERE! Ruka pulled Hotaru by the wrist and began to run but something blocked they're way…there in front of them were about a hundred demons ready to charge at the teen nobodies.

Without sparing any time, Ruka immediately called on his sword; thunder blade while in Hotaru's hands her book magically appeared. They faced each others back ready to fight. Thanks to Natsume's lessons every night, Ruka gained a bit speed and cut through about 3 demons per slice. He was able to electrically shoot (thunder blade is to electricity, right?) a few as well but only at a short range. Hotaru chanted a spell; "Asertano Magnificie!" and red flames engulfed a few demons. After a long time of fighting, they finished the demons. The two panted hard from the exhausting fight.

Reo stepped closer to the two with emotionless eyes he looked at the two young nothings while clapping his hands, "My, my, my! You've done quite a good job, though you are nothing compared to **_his_** masterpiece; Hyuuga." As he came closer Ruka shielded Hotaru protectively. The elder nobody stared at the two coldly then snapped his fingers causing thousands of demons to appear out of nowhere. He turned to the army of demons, "Finish them." With that he was gone. Okay, Ruka was in no condition to fight about thousand blood thirsty demons.

"W-what should we d-do, Hotaru?" maybe in fear he didn't realize that he called Imai- _Hotaru_. He glanced at the silent girl who sweated crazy. She was loosing balance but tried her best to stay on ground. '_I think she can only use magic at a limit considering that those spells are powerful…_' he thought as he shielded them. But the more he destroyed the more they came. Hotaru couldn't take t anymore, all her spell drained her positive energy, her legs gave away and she felt her world spin. She still needed to put a barrier across them, as soon as she was done with the magical barrier, she collapsed (still conscious though.)

"HOTARU!" Ruka yelled as he ran towards his stoic companion and swooped her in his arms with his eyes full of concern. Was she going to disappear? "No, Hotaru don't disappear yet…" he said softly as she clutched onto his shirt and tried to speak, "I'm not going to disappear yet…Ruka. L-listen…_pant_…nobodies can manipulate air… _pant_…as in you can jump high…hurry we need to…_pant_…get to Hyuuga and…Mikan." He can jump high? That didn't make sense at all!

But time wasn't by their side, you see the barrier was getting weak and soon the demons would barge in and finish the two. Sense or no sense, he is going to jump. Hotaru blushed when he carried her bridal-style and shut his eyes tightly. He could feel that he some-what lost contact with the ground, when he opened his eyes he was already in mid-air, he looked down and saw the broken barrier as the demons stamped through it. He landed on the roof with Hotaru still in his arms. Then he jumped down not sure whether he would reach the ground without any broken bones but to his surprise he was perfectly well except for the fact he almost lost his balance. He still needs to get the hang of these nobody things.

"I need to find those two…" he then looked at the weak girl battling against falling unconscious, "…and fast."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

**"N**atsume-kun, where do you think those two could be?" Mikan asked Natsume as they got off the restaurant once Natsume was done paying the bill with his credit card. "Dunno, but I don't have a good feeling about this…" he turned to face the sky as the seated themselves on the lush green grass. "Me neither…" she said softly as she too turned her gaze upwards.

A minor yet familiar sound came from the woods which were not heard by our beloved tangerine. But of course, nothing could escape the eyes of Natsume Hyuuga, he immediately ran towards the woods to the source of the sound as the confused Mikan sat there knowing its best to wait. He was fast and surprisingly he was able to make sure his footsteps weren't heard. Nah, for Hyuuga its no big deal after all he went through vigorous trainings to come this far.

He looked around sensing some one's aura as his piercing red orbs scanned informatively as he heard the same sound, this time more clear, "NATSUME!!?!" the arrogant teen immediately recognized it as Ruka and headed towards the voice jumping tree from tree.

Ruka was running as fast as he could search for his pal as he had the half conscious Hotaru in his arms. She enjoyed the warmth he emitted; it made her feel safe, though she couldn't help but blush at the thought. She gave a small smile when she glanced at the panicking Ruka and tried assuring him that she was okay. They were in the middle of the woods when a few demons made their way out of the shoot and chased after him. Unknowingly one giant appeared in front of them but it was too late…

_SLASH! _

There Natsume stood after he sliced the giant demon within a split second showing how strong he has grown. "You're slow." He told as he turned his back and started to leave. "We need to find Mikan-chan! Some guy called Reo is after her!" Ruka panicked, he cared for his childhood friend and the future of humanity of course. Natsume's eyes widen, "Shit!" he cursed and ran in his maximum speed possible. 'How _can I be so stupid? Leaving her alone like that?!?_' he thought as he gritted his teeth hoping his best that she would be safe. '_I won't forgive myself if anything happened to her…_'

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

**"I** wonder where that hentaii ran off to?" the fair princess Mikan asked herself as she stared at the woods with her slender finger placed on her chin. "We might get late if we don't hurry in getting to that other world—'' she was cut off when a pair of cold hands clamped her in an embracing position but intentions to kidnap her. She screeched when she heard him whisper coldly "You're not going anywhere but coming with me." She kicked his leg hard causing him to flinch in pain. "WHO ARE YOU?" he snickered as his violet orbs looked at her with hatred.

"Why I am a friend to Hyuuga." Reo said with his emotionless voice. She narrowed her eyes, "You don't seem so friendly!" In an attempt to run, she threw sand on his eyes when he didn't expect and picked herself up to run away. But sadly, he grabbed her by her arm and brought a gun above her forehead, "You must listen to me or your dead meat, Mikan-hime." He hissed as she whimpered in an urge to tears. She's never seen a gun before in her life except for in movies. "W-What d-do you want?" her voice quivered amusing the sadistic nobody. "Your life." Her eyes widen in shock, but then her expression changes to that of relief, "Natsume-kun, Ruka-pyon, Hotaru!"

Natsume and Ruka stood in a fighting stance while Hotaru used the tree for support. "Ahh…Hyuuga, don't you know you shouldn't get too close to the princess, you might loose her just like you lost **_them_**." Reo said sadistically. Mikan and Ruka glance at each other, just what is going on? "Shut up you basted!" Natsume yelled as he threw fire balls on Reo. Ruka also tried shooting with his thunder blade.

The teenaged men attacked Reo making him weak. Reo tried his best to call upon the demons but, "Why the hell aren't those demons here?!" he yelled in frustration while charging towards Natsume who easily dodged his attacks. He then glanced at Mikan and Reo said to himself, "She is nullifying my demons…" He was about to charge the weak Hotaru instead, he threw a vibration attack to finish off the weak with when, "HOTARU WATCH OUT!" a jolt of light appeared blinding Reo, in eager of what's going on Reo turned to the source of light to see Mikan? She was standing while her surroundings glowed and a barrier blocked Reo in a cage. Mikan's eyes grew wide, did she do that?

"Damn it!" he yelled. '_Mikan unknowingly did that barrier_.' Hotaru thought as she stared at Reo. He was caged in an invisible barrier as he tried attacking it to shoot it down but no avail. Hotaru then grabbed Mikan by the wrist and began running while the two boys followed. "Hotaru what are you doing?" Mikan question completely bewildered about what happened earlier.

"This is our perfect chance baka. We can leave this world now." The gang halted in the middle of the forest, they knew that barrier has gotten weak by now. "Mikan hurry intertwined your fingers with mine while repeating after me." She instructed as Mikan hesitated yet nods, they could hear loud footsteps of demons from all directions. Near…near…nearer "Repeat; I the princess of Kingdom Alice under the contact of light and darkness command thy; give me the permission to another land."

Mikan swallowed hard as fear was visible in her eyes, she glanced back at the two boys who kept their eyes open for any trouble and then she repeated what Hotaru said, "I-I the princess of Kingdom A-Alice under the c-contact of light and darkness command t-thy…" she looked down to see a wormhole that was ready to suck her in getting bigger and bigger while black smoke warmed her soft feet, she looked at her so called friends in a confusion and fear mixed state but they assured her that everything would be fine though they themselves don't know, relieved a bit she continued, "give me the permission to another l-land."

And with that they were gone…

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

_Hmm… I wonder if this chapter was good. Well, any ways feel free for asking any doubts. And thanks for the reviews, but please review more since I'm not o sure if I should continue coz I'm leaving for New York soon. _

**_Please read and review! _**

_Kairi_


	7. Meeting Narumi

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!!

_Thank you **Sei-sama, Clippit, ladalada, AngelEmCuti, Leenstarz, kemcat16, musicangelanime **and for every one who read my last chapter. _

_Thanks a million guys for reviewing for my one-shot story—'Is Falling in Love a Sin?' _

**_Wind-master-redmoon, Ritu, Sunkised-chan, tOUshAkUra mIsAsAyA AhIshimI…, funny sakura, cialoves 07, Cee-chan, Lakadako, Natsume-destiny, kishi.tenshi, midnightblue123, icemaiden of alice and okaix._**_ The song mentioned in it was 'Why Not' by Hilary Duff, it's really cool; you should try hearing on imeem. _

_For those who love reading my stories than please read my one-shot story (you can go into my profile/bio and click 'stories authored' to read if you can't find it) and it would be appreciated if you review, here's the summary: _

_(One-shot) Natsume and Mikan were in a play at the Alice festival, Mikan has realized her feelings for Natsume but thinks that she doesn't deserve him and falling for him is wrong. But a certain play at the Alice festival changes everything… MxN _

**_………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... _**

**11 August, 1pm, GOD KNOWS WHICH DAMN PLACE THIS IS!!! **

I, Mikan Sakura have a lot of problems as it is—my mom is going out with Jinno-sensei on dates almost every time their free, Perm picks on me everyday, Tsubasa-sempai barely even notices my feelings for him, the oh-so-great Natsume Hyuuga is bunking with me -not that I mind Ruka-pyon but Natsume? Puh-leeze!- and just a few days ago I found out that I'm the princess to kingdom which is attacked by a bunch of hooligans and which is why I have to go and strangle them to death instead of hiding under my bed like that mayor from Power Puff Girls does whenever crisis happen WHERE IT IS SAFE! Don't the people know that I am a princess and that I should, I don't know perhaps…LIVE!!?

Anyway, here I was, my legs shaking badly and reciting the words that Hotaru told me to repeat knowing that something supernatural would happen soon be good or bad. As soon as I saw a hole below my legs filled with red, blue and black swirling gases- more like smoke really- had started spiraling upwards in forms of long tendrils wrapped itself on my fragile body sucking me inside as I let out a shriek and shut my eyes tight…

I found myself in thin air, actually in…nothing?! I looked alarmed at my surroundings; I was in the gaseous substance and was slowly being sucked forward, it felt like I was flying but in slow motion. Fear was clearly visible in my eyes, how would it not? I mean this is the first time in my life I've jumped into a dimension from nearly being crucified by that carrot head nobody. I glanced helplessly at Hotaru- who was way far from me- who was followed by Ruka-pyon coz he seemed to be concerned about her weak status.

And there I was all alone…until I felt something warm and soft tug into my palm. That seemed to catch my attention. I immediately whipped my head down at my hands to get a clear view; Natsume was holding my hands?!!? He looked at my shocked face for a brief second from the corner of his eyes and then turned his gaze forward; I guess he noticed that I was umm…whimpering a bit. I looked away as I felt my face heat up to around 100 degrees or even more and my heart immediately melted, that was really so sweet of him…

With out much time to think, I felt the speed of the air sucking pull increase, faster and faster as a flash of light appeared in front of us. 'Whoa!' I and Ruka-pyon screeched since it was like we were in a plane that was about to crash. The only thing I felt at that time was Natsume's grip on my hand tighten. In less than a second I felt the ground beneath my feet, as I fluttered my eyes open, I found my self in a thick forest, like those tropical African forests they show on TV. A soothing breeze swept aside bangs aside and played with our clothes that fluttered as I peeked at Natsume and Hotaru both wearing faces of determination. This was it…my destiny…my journey to…my _kingdom_…

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

Natsume who put his hands behind his head leading the way, Ruka was giving the unconscious Hotaru a piggy back ride and a Mikan began unconsciously tangling the crystal pendant that bounced over her chest began walking on the sandy path that was lined with moonstones and surrounded by lush and healthy trees. "Where are we gonna stay for the night?" Ruka asked Natsume who hasn't spoken a word ever since they arrived.

He looked at Ruka and answered sarcastically, "Unless we find some job to earn money of here's currency we'll end up homeless." Ruka getting embarrassed shut his mouth while Mikan mumbled something about 'What's his problem?' "Umm…guy, I'm thirsty, and I saw this lake of fresh water while we were passing by so I'll go and get myself a drink. Could you wait for a while? I be back soon." Without giving the boys a chance to speak, she ran off. "Hey…"

**Ruka's POV:**

"Hey…" a weak and shaky voice came from behind my shoulders. The once strong girl I knew now looked so…fragile. I felt sorry for her; her face was so pale, even paler than usual like as though a vampire sucked all her blood. It was my fault in way…if only I had done something earlier and helped her before she used all her limits.

"What…-ugh- happened?" I looked at her from my shoulders with a warm smile, so glad that she was fine, "After we reached here safely, your body couldn't handle the pressure anymore so you passed out for a while. We were worried about you…how're you feelin' now?" she seemed to look a little mad, I could tell. She maintained a totally stern face and ignored my question, "Put me down." She said coldly. Jeez, is this all I get - even thought it was at the last moment- for saving her life?

But I still maintained a friendly smile and gently put her on her feet. She faced me and asked harshly while she took a step towards me, "why did you interrupt my barrier? I had every thing under control!" I laughed at her, she seemed scary but_ 'every thing under control_' my butt. I nonchalantly took a step towards her playing along,"oh really? Hotaru you were weak…I had to break the barrier or you could've--"

"Because of your reckless work Ruka…" she cut me off charging a step towards me while her eyebrows furrowed. Man, I seriously wish that I was a companion of _Mr. Bean_ rather than Hotaru; I couldn't help but laugh looking at her. Oh wait, I just seemed to used her first name a lot, but she didn't seemed to mind –I guess- since he called me Ruka too. "Those AAO's might think that I'm weak. Listen _Blondie_, I have practiced witch craft and exorcism my whole life, I do not require any help from someone like _you_."

I stopped laughing and became mad. I didn't care if Natsume (who was a bit further than us) looked amused and watched us intently. I took a furious step and we were practically nose to nose; except for the fact that I had to look down at her considering that I and Nats are taller than the two girls.

"Listen you witch" I started icily and I focused into her eyes, "if it wasn't for me than you would have practically been dead by now but if you think that you could have kept the barrier for long than you are WRONG! Because in that process, you had a hundred percent of a chance to die, than not only will the AAO's think that we were weak but they would think that we were lame wannabe heroes who didn't know our own good or even worse, they would think we were mental. And what did you call me for saving your life--a _Blondie_?"

She looked a bit taken aback from that, she lost her balance and landed on the ground in a sitting position. I think it was a sort of reflex when I stretched my hand forward and she accepted still a bit baffled. She soon recovered, "Whatever. And thank you...Ruka." I was caught of guard when she smiled, a genuine rare smile. To be honest I never thought she'd thank me, and I practically melted inside. My eyebrows that were knit together relaxed and a smile made its way past my face.

"Hey you two lovebirds, if you're done with all of that romance then maybe we should get going." Natsume called out from behind his shoulders while walking ahead of us. I turned red and shouted defensively, "We weren't doing anything!" as I followed him. Wait something didn't seem right…something was missing…or rather someone, "Where's **_Mikan_**?"

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... **

**August 11, 9 pm, in Narumi-san's house, Rosewood. **

I hate life. Do you know how HARD it is to be a princess? Next time I hear Perm brag about how lucky Prince William is, than I'll punch her on her face. Why couldn't I have been a princess like that Bell from Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella, with my Tsubasa-sempai as my prince charming? Except for the part with those two ugly step sisters because I'd rather commit suicide than getting another Perm. So here I am with my sprained ankle that has been carefully placed over cushiony pillows -that belong to Narumi-san- writing my journal while I wince in pain from lack of rest.

I'll tell you what happened: before Hotaru woke up, I got thirsty and excused myself for drinking water at a nearby lake. While I was walking on the clay mud, one of my ankle length black leather boots got stuck in a muddy puddle –more like quick sand. So when I bent down to pick it up, I heard a 'Coo'. A _coo_?

I swiftly turned towards the _coo_ behind my back, face to face with an ostrich. I'm not sure if it was an ostrich to be exact, it was huge with blue and black feathers with these huge claws that can pierce or even tear a man into half. I checked with Ruka on what she was, he told me it was an Emu. Anyways, I looked at it with a smile plastered on my face and cooed, "Hello there! What are you doing here, birdie?"

**Mistake no.1 **

It looked at me turning a side of its face towards me to get a clear view. She then did something I didn't expect; he screeched! Okay…I wasn't that stupid to stand there waiting while its claws tear me into two.

**Mistake no.2 **

Instead of slowly backing away, I ran hastily, that's why it followed me. That was a MAJOR mistake. I ran in full speed, sweat dripping from me forehead as she followed me yelling swears in bird languages (it seemed like it, the swears I mean). I thought of climbing on trees but to my dismay the trees were inconvenient- either too short or too weak.

**Mistake no.3 **

I looked back to check the distance between us; to see if I needed to increase my speed. While I looked back I didn't notice a rock lay in front of me and o I tripped, getting a sprained ankle-I may kindly add. So there I lay helpless as I watched in fear, the _birdie_ that was ready to pounce at me anytime now. Where the hell is Natsume when you NEED him?!?

"SHOO! GET AWAY!" I heard. Surprised, I looked behind me. A beautiful lady was standing (my savior), she had blond hair in step cut that reached till her shoulders, while bright purple orbs and applied red lipstick. She was wearing a dress, like the ones those women in the cowboy ages wore; it was a puffy long sleeve pink dress that had frills in the end with glittering designs like a royal look as she carried a black umbrella in her hand. "Oh dear…your leg is sprain, come me, I treat you" she stretched her hand while I stared at it for a while. She noticed it and smiled warmly, "no worry, I no going to harm little girl. I am Narumi Renaldo…"

And that's how I met her. She is so kind, she even let everybody –who later on found me- to stay at her huge and magnificent house, I couldn't help but say 'Sugoi' with my mouth hanging open (which was embarrassing when I realized). Her house was as big as a…a CASTLE!!! Like those ones you see in those haunted movies, it had bloomed roses that spiraled around it and those huge windows that had modern art glass paintings on it. It was perfect scenery when the sun shone through those windows as we entered the room filled with expensive yet classic old aged furniture. There were those red carpets, lamp shades, a very long table to dine and those thick lengthy red curtains made out of velvet.

It seems that she is mayor of this town; Rosewood. But only one draw back though- she can't speak properly, all she knows is French, she kept calling me '_fille_' meaning girl and her catch phase was '_pfuit_' meaning big deal or something, Ruka-pyon talks to her in French since he is half French half Japanese. Tonight at dinner, I almost died of a fit of laughter, if it wasn't for Hotaru who stepped on my foot –very very hard- from under the table (my poor sprained foot) when Narumi-san said 'butt' for butter. Poor Narumi-san, her face turned red from embarrassment.

But the weird part was that Natsume kept glaring at her the whole time. Even while eating he would often glance at her, though he wouldn't talk to her---oh god! My sprain is gone, I can walk again! WOOHOO! Just now while I was writing my journal in one of Narumi-san 18 rooms which she let us each have one, Hotaru came in with this small pot that had a green bubbly potion. "What is this?" I asked her. She however focused only on applying that liquid on my sprained ankle. Soon it glowed and I didn't feel anything. "Does it pain?" she asked once the glow stopped. I smiled brightly and told her it was fine. "Umm…Hotaru? Can I umm…go for a walk?" than I joined my hands and said all fast with high pitch, "I mean this time I won't get lost! I promise! I'll be even more careful! Onegai! The garden looks so beautiful from up here! Onegai!" I peeked at her with one eye as she stared at me and than sighed. "Fine." She said as her hand moved towards my messy hair and she started to comb it. Okay, I gotto to go now, bye-bye!

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

A girl was seen wearing a pink and grey sweat suite with a half pony tied in a ribbon walking in the decorated fancy garden. "SU-TE-KI" Mikan said to herself, beaming looking at the serene view. It was dark yet sakura petals flowed with the wind and gracefully landed on ground. There were different colors of roses planted neatly around a fountain with small colorful lights that made it extra beautiful." No wonder this town is famous for its roses!" Mikan exclaimed with a bright smile plucking out each rose of different colors, despite the 'Do not pluck' sign written clearly. She kept humming to herself but then dropped all of her roses in shock when she heard a scream, a loud scream of a girl.

"What was that?" she asked herself getting alarmed. "It came from over there." She stealthily walked towards behind the bushes, and when she reached there her eyes widen in pure shock and fear. "AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" This time it was her scream.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

"Did you hear that?" Hotaru questioned the two boys softly seated beside a cozy fireplace. "Yeah…I'll go check up on polka, Imai…you stay here with Ruka and check up on those diagnoses." Natsume told Hotaru who had a transparent wide screen computer put in front. She nodded obediently; "Wakarimasen (understood)" Natsume took his sword in his grip that was placed near the fireplace and walked out the room.

He made his way towards the garden that has now had its lights turned off making it dark. He stopped his tracks when he stepped on some liquid, no ordinary liquid but…blood. His expression turned to that of anger, "Damn it! Polka-dots!" he ran towards the direction sparing absolutely no time.

It led to behind the bushes, he swooped through the leaves. "Mikan…"he said to himself in a whisper when he saw her beside a dead body of a girl that had its head cut off. But what surprised him more was that he saw Mikan standing there beside the body with blood flowing through her right arm.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

_Hi there! Long time no see! I'm currently writing in my cousin's computer, so I'm a bit slow. I guess I kinda madeNarumi a girl…tee-hee. _

**_Please read and review_**

_Kairi_


	8. Vampire Ghouls at night!

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?

_(Currently sitting in a dark corner away from the computer with a gloomy aura) so less reviews Sob so less reviews sob so less reviews (Slowly moves towards the computer with a shaking finger) this time sob I hope I get more than 2 reviews…sob _

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A room was filled with soothing warmth emitted by the fire place. Nervousness approached those cerulean eyes, he sipped his bitter herbal tea to keep himself calm, he has to ask it. There was no backing away now. "Umm…Hotaru?" his charming voice that has driven many fan-girls around him and his best friend showed a bit hesitation. The hesitation that went passed through the amidst violet pools of the Imai demon. She gave a mere nod not even bothering to peek out at the addressee and kept doing those annoying tip-tap sounds making the poor boy even more uncomfortable.

"What's going to happen to us after we destroy the AAO?"

_Tap_…Hotaru's finger didn't move from her last key as she stared in the screen of her computer unable to face the newbie nobody as guilt conquered her actions. What can she say?—_don't keep hope on your future bub, coz you don't have one_. Could she say that? Especially to the kindest and don't forget to mention cutest guy who wanted to befriend a dorky and dark witch who never knew the meaning of life.

"What will happen to us? Hotaru! Answer me!" this time he picked Hotaru from her seat and kept a firm grip on her shoulders making her face him. She blushed, the question sounded like as though they were in love and they were about to marry or something.

"What are you talking about, baka? We're going to be fine." She hated herself for lying to someone like Ruka. Ruka's grip on her shoulders loosened as he smiled; a kind of smile that Hotaru had never seen before, it wasn't sad but in a sort of way different.

"We're not going to make it, ne?"

"I'm sorry." She said quietly turning away, for the first time she felt guilty. She never felt that way whenever she whacked Mikan's head for not paying up her dues (okay, maybe a little). She felt like a doctor who just announced a 5 year old about to die tomorrow from Aids.

"Don't worry, nobody will live forever! You just have to accept fate." he said showing off his boyish smile, drifting one arm around her shoulder.

"Ruka, touch me again and I'll sell those 'you-know-what' pictures to the school paper." she pointed a finger on Ruka's arms around her slim shoulders.

"Oh, gomen." He said blushing.

His eyes fell on a portrait that hung on a wall, it was quite dusty and a bit smudged but you could still make out its contents. There was this guy with dishwater-blonde hair and pure black eyes that stood beside another person but the face of that person couldn't be seen since it was torn– more like scratched by a claw but you could say that she was a women; judging by her outfit.

He looked at the half-torn portrait curiously for a minute until he heard Hotaru say, "Aren't you going to sleep? I need to blow of the candles."

"Uh-right." He said as he took a quick glance at the portrait and merely shrugged before leaving.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... **

**"**What the heck happened here…?" he said softly confused upon what his eyes showed. "N-Natsume…" her voice cracked, tears freely flowing out of those olive pools that showed innocence. She ran to him briskly and hugged him tight. His tanned cheeks blush bright red as he looked at the crying girl in his arms. "I-I didn't d-do it! I d-didn't do it!" she cried like a lost kitten. "S-some monsters came and e-executed that y-young girl. I-I tried to save t-to save her but they cut my arm and I-I couldn't h-help her…I-I couldn't save the l-little girl…"

She cried hard, salty droplets that flowed down her cheeks now flowed down his non-absorbing leather coat. Gees, the more tightly she hugs him, the more he feels like jumping of a cliff. Now what should he do to get her stop making him fall more in love with her- burn her hair?-nah, already tried that. Love- _seriously_.

"I-I sorry, I must have spoilt your weird dress…" His eyes slightly twitched, his dress was definitely not WEIRD, has she- the freaky pigtail wearer with the annoying smile- ever looked at herself in the mirror?

She released him from her warm embrace and looked down at her shoes, she lived a normal life before and it was hard enough, but after she met the three, nothing has been going right in her life and now for the first time in life she saw an actual murder that was way to hard for her to digest.

A tear fell on the ground, he noticed.

Quickly, he fished out a handkerchief off his pocket, and handed it to her. She stared at it, with her squinting eyes that burn because of all that crying, she glared at it like as though it were a lizard. Understanding her thought, he tried bring gentleness into his voice, "Now stop crying, it looks like I made you cry."

"N-Natsume…" her eyes glimmered; it was the rarest of times she could see the nice of him. She gave a small smile accepting the plain blue fabric, she blushed.

"More importantly…" he said trying to stop any further sap, "can you describe me how those nobodies looked like?" Her eyebrows furrowed in thought as her smile turned into a visible frown. "They weren't like nobodies or demons at all. They sucked out the young girl's blood at first –which of course demons don't- but when she struggled so hard and managed to escape them they…executed her. Well, they were more like…like **_vampires_**."

"Vampires…" he echoed.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... **

**DAY 2; 9 am at Rosewood, Narumi residence. **

_SLAM _

He slammed his hand on the wooden desk causing the rusty paper clips placed on it shake and the coffee cup to almost drop. "Why didn't you bother telling us that there were frickin' vampire demons lurking around Rosewood?!" he hissed. She looked at him frightened; just now she learned that Mikan was a princess and yada-yada. "Ah w-well I wos (was) a-about to but…I thout (thought) you k-kids would be scared, no?"

Natsume angrily left the loft that belonged to Narumi without bothering to listen to her explanations but when he swung open the door he saw the trio standing there. Mikan first approached him and voiced out curiously, "What are we going to do now? We have to destroy the vampire demons before they hurt anymore innocent lives."

"I already know that, baka." he said in slight frustration. He leaned over the wallpapered wall, "The reason the demons now suck blood must be because they posses something of great energy that converted them to a higher form."

"So you are saying that…" Hotaru said with seriousness. "Exactly, the caught hold of an Alice stone." Natsume said in a bored tone.

Hotaru then opened up her magic book and stated, "And the worse part it that we can not kill them with our swords or magic anymore, since the Alice stone made their bodies quite powerful."

"Nani?! This is bad!" Mikan said almost panicking.

"…"

"I-I don't have a good feeling about this…" Ruka said getting all worried. An aroma of awkward silence filled the atmosphere; the only sound heard was the chirping of birds.

"Daijoubu! Zettai daijoubu dayo! (It's fine! Everything will be fine!" Mikan gave a sudden outburst to the trio catching their attention. Hotaru and Natsume looked at her as though she's gone crazy, and seeing their expressions she giggled. "Never let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game, sometimes the worst thing you can do is nothing…who knows, sometimes the tables might turn!" she said winking.

Stunned and mildly touched at the turn of events, Natsume couldn't help muse that such actions of hers just made him like her even more. He couldn't help but let a small grin escape that of course went out unnoticed.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………... **

**Day 3; 8 am at the kitchen of the household. **

"I hope this comes out good…more importantly I hope he likes it." She said to herself softly bending down at the screen of the microwave as she watched the cookie dough get baked. Upon hearing a beep from the microwave, the female pathogen open the door of the microwave and absent-mindedly touched the hot cookies bare handed. "Itai…" she flinched teary-eyed holding her burnt finger in agony. '_He better appreciate this…_' she thought as she bandaged her finger.

**10 am at the rose garden beside the entrance gate. **

"One…two…one…two…" the intense Sakura counted down as she did her push ups. "You vampire demons! I'm ready for anything now! Bring it on!!!" she yelled to the sky patting her right arm's muscle.

"Can you shut up?" Natsume yelled removing a manga from his face while lying down on the lush green grass waiting for Hotaru who was doing God-knows-what. "Ruka-pyon, where are we going?" Mikan asked seating herself on a nearby swing.

Ruka gave a small smile and calmly said while petting the furry rabbit, "We got information saying that a family located in the west of Rosewood has lost their two family members in a vampire attack last night. It couldn't have gone so far, we might get some clues there too."

"Sou…(I see)" she swung her legs like a five year old. _'Waiting is such a bore. Hmm…let see what do we have here?'_

Ruka-pyon: petting rabbit

BORING

Natsume: reading manga

BORING

"Mou… these guys are like living corpse" she said to herself.

She observed Natsume a little, her eye twitched – damn that boy was too good looking for his own good, had a bit of a dreary personality and a perverted streak, and he made her so angry sometimes. But how can someone be so good looking and mean all at the same time? She thought it was quite a crime against nature.

"What are you looking at?" he corked an eyebrow looking at the complex princess staring at him for apparently no reason.

He just hoped he didn't dream about the bubbly Sakura tonight. He _hoped_ that the universe would at least spare him one night. He shivered as he a cold breeze nipped at his bones. Images of his recent dreams about the teenage princess plagued his mind and warmed his blood.

'_Stupid_,' he thought to himself, '_I'm feeling downright stupid._' And if he could trample and subdue teenage urges he would, but honestly, he wasn't motivated enough, and he didn't _mind_ having those heady visions of Mikan anyway. Thusly, he let thoughts of Mikan's creamy skin and innocent eyes sink into his mind and caress over his heart. He was sure the universe was laughing at him. His blood warmed at the sight of her, and his tiredness faded.

Mustering up enough courage, she walked over to him leaving the swing with a small paper bag in her small hands. Slightly blushing, she took out a box from the paper bag and opened it revealing freshly baked chocolate-chip cookies and handed it to him. "Well, I needed to thank you for that night so I baked you some cookies."

He looked at her with no trace of emotion; he really isn't the sweet liking type. But when he caught sight of her injured finger, he accepted it without a word. '_She really is an idiot_' he a thought bit angrily looking at the plastered finger.

"Eh, mitte Hotaru!" the gawkiest princess said happily clapping her hands as she saw Hotaru wearing the school uniform come towards them. Mikan put her hands on her hips, "Usoi! Usoi! (You're late!)".

"Why were you late?"

"Never mind that." Hotaru said in a serious tone, "I just found out that out of the 30 victims…only 16 were killed, the rest 14 were driven along with them as captives. We have to rescue those people before they get killed!"

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

**"**Yes, it was here, last night it…my son…my poor baby…" unable to continue any further, the middle aged women poked her nose into her handkerchief and began crying. Mikan and Ruka looked at the women sympathetically; they asked a few questions to a family that lost a nine year old kid while Hotaru and Natsume investigated on the other victims.

The lady's husband put his hands on her shoulders as a sign of comfort as he looked at the 15 year old kids, "What she means is that after last night there isn't any sign of those creatures. But as far as I've know, you might find them in the old spooky castle on top of the Benjamin Hill. But kids, I warn you; there were these two naughty teenagers like you kids who checked the castle out but never returned…never…if you want to live I suggest you don't pay a visit to those vampires!"

Ruka and Mikan exchanged glances before they thanked the couple and headed towards Hotaru and Natsume.

"There are a lot of rumors going on about the castle located on the Benjamin Hills." the stoic girl stated.

"Don't tell me, you guys heard it too?" Ruka asked getting a nod from Natsume. "Seems like the one place we'd find any clues are that castle." Natsume spoke out facing the dark sky.

"D-Do we r-really have to go in? I-Its really old and dusty…and…and I'm allergic to dust, so why don't I stay behind?" Mikan laughed nervously facing the huge rusty gates of the castle that lead to those castles you get to see in horror movies. "You're scared." Natsume stated flatly with half lidded eyes before dragging the wailing tangerine by her arm.

"I don't want to go inside! I don't want to go inside! Help! Somebody Help!"

"Shut up!"

"Let go of me you…you _pfuit_"

"You don't even know what that means. If you don't shut that mouth of yours then I'll turn you into ashes!"

Before Mikan could argue any further, they heard a screech; not your ordinary screech, it was more like the sound of a scratch on a black board. "What the heck was---mmfph!" she couldn't continue her sentence any further since Natsume covered her mouth with his hand and with his free hand his free hand he slid it around her collarbone restricting her to get any further. Blushing scarlet, she tried o struggle free but Natsume who forcibly took her behind a grandfather clock and ducked.

After hiding behind the clock, Mikan peeped at the edge and found demon vampires flying around. It was probably their screech. "Phew, that was a close call!" she sighed. Once the demons were gone, Hotaru who hid under a desk and Ruka who hid in a cupboard came out joining the other two as they stealthily made their way deeper into the castle rooms. "There's has to be a way that we can stop these vampire demons without using our weapons!" Ruka whispered as they headed to wards the library.

They closed the door and stepped forward in the huge unused library, if it wasn't so dark and dusty it could make a perfect library. "Let's rummage through these books, maybe we might find something." Natsume ordered them to split up. "Hotaru, I'm coming with you! Its dark and I'm scared!" Mikan exclaimed as she ran towards the bored witch and hugged her arm crying waterfalls.

When Ruka passed through a shelf, he suddenly halted staring a painted portrait wide-eyed. It was a portrait of a women sitting on a chair framed in a golden frame, but that alone wasn't so attention grabbing, what caught his eye was that the women's eyes were the same as Hotaru, she looked exactly like Hotaru but with long curly black hair that reached till her waist. And it the same guy he saw the day before night's portrait, the one that seemed to be half torn stood right there beside Hotaru's picture!

"N-Natsume, take a look at this!" Natsume, getting curios held the portrait in his hands.

"This person…looks like Imai."

**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..**

"I'm hungry!"

"I'm tired!"

"I'm thirsty!"

"I'm sleepy!"

"I'm bored!"

"Did you find anything yet?"

"For the last time, shut up!" she snapped. The purple eyed teenage girl rubbed her temples, her so called best friend kept whining constantly without shutting up. Mikan smiled and hugged Hotaru from behind putting half of her weight on Hotaru, "But I'm so glad we get to spend some time together, even if it's in a haunted castle!"

"Get off me!" Hotaru tried shaking Mikan off her. Hotaru must've let her guard down because the two didn't notice the shadows behind them. Suddenly two arms caged Hotaru from the back, swiftly turning back she saw a man. Yes, man. But he wasn't exactly normal, that is if you count the rough scaly skin like that of leprosy patients, the weird outfit with a black cape and fangs filled to his teeth. More importantly he looked exactly like the guy in the portrait!

Mikan shrieked loudly when a vampire demon caught her by her arms, "Natsume! Ruka-pyon!" that was loud enough for the teenage boys to hear, sparing no time at all. When those two made it to the girls the heard the man says, "I've found you! After all these years! Now we shall rule the whole of Rosewood, my queen!"

"LET THEM GO!" Natsume yelled aiming a punch to the vampire demons and knocking it out in the process. Mikan, who got freed, rushed and hid herself behind Natsume. The two boys then tried saving Hotaru but unfortunately before they could do something, the man with the beady black eyes sunk his fangs into nape sucking her blood out, of course Hotaru tried her best to struggle out of his grip but it was still no use. Soon a binding light covered the whole library and before you know it…they were gone!

Ruka stared at the place where Hotaru was a while ago with his face written with shock, regretting and sadness while Mikan fell on her knees, "H-Hotaru…s-she's…no…I don't want her to…no…"

_Hotaru… _

_Hotaru… _

_Hotaru… _

"Stop this. There's still a way to save her…"

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_And with that our chapter ends! Its really hard writing in your cousin's house, they keep peeping which is really annoying! Good news is that I get to go back home on the 5th! Hmmm…I wonder if it's too short, now? Oh well, don't forget to review guys! You gotta cheer me up now! _

_Kairi_


	9. Let's save Hotaru!

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?

**_Thank you for the reviews! _**

**_Kemcat_**_- glad you like it! _

**_XXMikanXX_**_-__ thanks a lot! At first I thought my story would be a downright flop, but now I don't feel that way thanks to you guys; you guys encouraged me to write more! _

**_SailorDayDreamer_**_- Don't worry, Hotaru won't wont' won't won't won't wont' won't won't -I'm getting tired of writing wont- die! _

**_Neko-_**_ I'm flattered! _

**_Aleda12_**_- Have I been updating so slow? I guess I'm lazier than I thought I was! No worries, I'll try updating soon. _

**_Ladalada_**_- there's no way I'm letting poor (yet greedy) Hotaru die. Don't worry! _

**_Lucia096_**_- Thanks for reviewing! _

**_Younggem_**_- I'm so glad you liked my story. _

**_Yuki- _**_that's really very sweet of you! Thanks! _

_I've mentioned some French sentences in this chapter, I'm not certain if my French is really that fluent, so please don't mind my mistakes. _**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"You're right there is still a way!" Mikan said as she got off her knees and wiped her tears, "We can't give up now! It's Hotaru-chan we're talking about! I got an idea, why don't we go and search for a spell in Hotaru's book on how to change her back to normal!" then she started to panic, "Wait! Her inscriptions are in some kind of symbol language. We can't understand that!"

"Polka-dots." Natsume interrupted seeing the princess getting paranoid.

"Or maybe if we tell Narumi-san about what happened, she might know something to do. Yeah, that's it! Narumi-san is the leader of this place; she'd know everything about this town like the back of her hands!"

"Ichigo-gara. (Strawberry prints)"

Despite the commotion Mikan seemed to be creating that also could attract the attention of demons and thus needed to be stopped, Ruka wasn't paying any attention towards her. He looked down sadly, with a mixture of confusion. If she's turn into a vampire demon then…

"Oh no! If we leave this place, who knows what would happen to Hotaru! Wahh, wakanai! (I don't get it!)"

"Shut up!"

"Or maybe if we--"

**WHAM**

"ITAI…! Natsume you BAKA! Why'd you do that?!" she screamed at Natsume who had just hit her head with a stick he picked up from the ground. He patted the stick in his palm, and spoke emotionlessly "Had enough? Or do you want more coz I don't mind." She sweat dropped as she rubbed her sore head, "I-I'll be quite." '_Anata ga maou (you are a devil.)__' _

Ruka smiled looking at Mikan- the girl who's never ready to give up until the end. "Remember the portrait we saw earlier? Hotaru and that guy from earlier stood in a fancy room, I bet that's one of these castle's rooms. Maybe Hotaru is in that room with the rest." He said calmly. Mikan tapped her chin and wondered out loud, "Hmm…I wonder where that room is?"

And as if on cue, the ground below her began to shake, loud sounds of rolling and crashing rocks were heard. She screeched at her loudest when the floor in her mass collapsed soon grabbing the two boy's attention. "Mikan!" they shouted her name aloud in chores as they ran up to her but were a little too late, by then she went crashing down the floor to what seemed to be a tunnel.

"Mikan!" Natsume shouted as he scanned down the huge and deep pit that consumed his one true love. "Natsume! I think I can see her!" Ruka said with worry pointing downwards. Sparing no time, the boys jumped into the hole, sliding down and finally reaching the end. They noticed that they now were in an underground tunnel, fire lamps connected with coiling stairs leading towards a huge golden framed door. Their thoughts were cut off when they heard voices from under a few piles of rocks, "Tasukete! (Help me!)"

Knowing that those voices belong to Mikan, they immediately rushed towards the pile of rocks and dug them out. Soon the two lads found her, she had a slightly bruiced face but thank lord almightly nothing was damaged. "Good thing I landed on something soft or there would be no future for Alice." She said pointing at the horse hay she fell into that was lying around. "The rocks that fell on me only caused slight bruises, but thankfully no damage."

She moved a hand towards Ruka's full sleeve cashmere sweater and plucked a splinter of wood out after regaining her composure, "Where are we?"

"It seems like an underground tunnel. There should be something interesting here." Ruka pointed out as the three made their way to the end of the tunnel that was sealed with a door. "This might be the entrance to the room I talked about earlier." Ruka whispered carefully opening the door as Natsume and Mikan stealthily walked into the dark room.

It wasn't as fancy as it looked like in the portrait. The room was a bit worn out, with the curtains torn and the huge dinning table into pieces, the worse part is even though there were lights lit out in the tunnel, the room was absolutely dark, and the only light present was radiated by the moon. It was even creepier than the other rooms she has been to.

Ruka stood at a corner of another door and indicated the other two to join him. The three peeked at the door finding a woman with dark hair and fangs filled to her teeth standing there and sipping on a vine glass. 'Hotaru!' Mikan thought happily upon recognizing her. But there was something different about Hotaru, Ruka noticed, her eyes…they seemed so blank and lifeless than usual…like as though she were on a spell.

"What should we do now?" Ruka whispered to himself staring at the now vampire demon Hotaru. "The people who have been victims of the vampires…" Natsume started as Ruka and Mikan looked at him, "are now the minors of that guy we saw earlier. That means we have to get rid of that guy without hurting the minors."

They kept silent once they heard sounds of trumpets been blown. And soon they heard two people talk in French; Ruka being half French half Japanese translated those words to the other two.

"Soon…our attendent viendrait à une fin (Soon…our wait would come to an end.)" the vampire leader spoke in French, walking down the red carpet grandly and moving towards Hotaru.

"Oui. (yes.)" She replied bowing while holding the ends of her skirt to show courtesy.

He smirked, and then put one of his arms around her waist bringing her closer to him while with his free hand; he cupped her chin and looked at her eyes lovingly. "Nous ferons maintenant courir un vampire nécessaire. (We shall now have a proper vampire race.) Vous et moi serons finalement ensemble après toutes ces années. (You and I will finally be together after all these years.)"

Behind the scenes, Ruka had a visible frown present on his usual calm face, upon noticing it Mikan asked him, "What's the--" He cut her off angrily, focusing his gaze entirely on Hotaru, "Nande monai." Natsume corked an eyebrow than asked emotionlessly, "Are you bothered by the fact that those two are getting a little bit **_too_** close." At that point, the thunder blade wielder's face turned as red as a tomato as he sputtered, "C-Chigai ne! (of course not!)"

The vampire leader raised one of Hotaru's hands and announced proudly to his massive minors "Nous ferons appel Aux vampires exclus et détruirons tout le Rosewood comme notre vengeance! Notre vengeance à eux pour nous séparer et effacer notre course. (We shall call upon the banished vampires and destroy all of Rosewood as our revenge! Our revenge to them for parting us and erasing our race.)"

Loud cheers arose from the dinning table that the vampire demons/minors were seated on. "Ne, Ruka-pyon, who is that guy?" Mikan asked

"Well, before Hotaru got captured, Natsume and I did some research in the library and surprisingly there was nothing written about him but luckily we found some information on that guy. His name is Michel Descartes, apparently he considers Hotaru as Bella de Viane's reincarnation. The vampire demons led by Michel, terrorized the town and the head of the town, one of Narumi-san's ancestors whose name isn't mentioned didn't do anything because his wife pleaded him not to. His wife was Bella."

Mikan stole a quick glance at Hotaru who was dancing with Michel before nodding as an indication to go on. "It seems that later on the head found out about Bella's and Michel's _-coughs_- affair. In anger, he set an army to kill the minors and imprisoned all of the original vampire demons in an unknown vortex. Before the two were separated, they swore to meet again in their afterlife and take revenge together."

"Sou ka." Mikan said with dotted eyes. All of a sudden Michel raised his hand and ordered the music to stop; his face seemed that of suspicion as he sniffed the atmosphere. He frowned, "Je sens le sang."

Ruka paled, "W-We should get out o-of here!"

"Why? What did that guy say?"

"He said…he smells blood…"

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...**

**DAY 5; 5:30 am in an unused old library, haunted castle. **

A normal person would choke or call the mental hospital if I ran up to him and say, '_I have to save Hotaru who is being brainwashed by a vampire who thinks she is his lover from their previous life and wants to rule over the world_.' I mean who wouldn't! Except for that I'm not really mental because my situation is exactly the same. Hotaru's been kidnapped and turned into a vampire by the vampire head; Michel Descartes- this whacky French guy who wants to rule over Rosewood.

Boys, seriously.

Don't ask me how I managed to find Hotaru in this huge castle, it's a very looooong (and painful) story. So like after we found her, or more likely, Jean found us- my eyes widen in fear as I slowly fixed my gaze to the presence behind me to find the least person I'd like a welcome from; Michel. He went in this scary tone, "semble que nous ayons des voleurs! (Looks like we have intruders!)"

He ordered hundreds of demons minors to chase after us and of course we fled considering that we can't harm them with Thunder Blade or Dark Aura. Thank goodness Natsume bought us some time; he created a huge wall of fire surrounding the vampires as we headed towards the exit. Natsume and Ruka-pyon held my hands tightly when Michel flew and halted right in front of us blocking the exit -which was really sweet of them. A few of Michel's soft dishwater blonde hair fell on his face as he looked at us, man, if he weren't a world dominating whacko…the girls die to be recognized by him. The French thingy really works.

"Croyez-vous vraiment que le feu va arrêter quelqu'un aussi puissant que moi ? (Do you really think that fire is going to stop someone as powerful as me?)"

He smirked as Natsume and Ruka narrowed their eyes, "Hmm…comment intéressant! J'ai reçu une chance de rencontrer le **_chat noir_** lui-même (Hmm how interesting! (I got a chance to meet the **_black cat_** himself!)"

"Black cat…?" Ruka echoed as he peeked on Natsume.

Natsume charged fireballs into the vampire's eyes, before we all ran towards the exit. "Vous gosse! (You brat!)" Michel shouted as his burnt eye slowly began to heal itself. This was really GROSS! But there was only one thing in my mind at that time- _It was a matter of minutes till he hunts us down_.

Right after we dashed out the exit, the only place we could reach was the shaggy library. I put my hands on my knees panting really exhausted as Natsume shut the door with help from Ruka-pyon. "We can't run forever." I heard Ruka-pyon mutter. I knew he was talking about the vampire demons, I'm not that stupid.

"Nobodies…make my life miserable."

"Haemorpphages." I heard Natsume correct. I tilted my head to get a clear view of his face, still bending with my hands on my knees.

"The real name for nobodies was haemorphages, apparently people who disliked haemorphages named them nobodies out of disgust." He said in a mater of fact tone. I gaped at him. "H-Haemorphages?" He leaned to the shelf nonchalantly and crossed his arms above his chest as he stared up the ceiling.

My blood in my body seemed to dehydrate when sounds of rough banging on the door was heard. The demons tried to barge in by breaking their door. Did I mention how it sucks to be a princess? By then Ruka-pyon dragged me by my arm and led me to a safe corner as he grabbed my wrist, me behind his back. I could see the door crack little by little, the door knob broke too as demons struggled to get it, their arms plopping through the holes. I tugged my head into Ruka-pyon's shoulders, getting really scared, my eyes lining in tears. '_Is this really the end?'_ My mind screamed.

I was worried about Natsume, just what was that guy thinking? If it weren't for me being caged by Ruka-pyon, I'd go right up there and slap him. Does he really think that he could take them all by himself? Despite Ruka-pyon's pleads, he didn't move an inch. I screamed at him, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Protecting you." He snapped calling upon Dark Aura. _'Protecting…me?'_ I thought, that Natsume…always standing straight with that strong back of his; never showing a sign of weakness- to protect someone you really need strength.

My thoughts were cut off when the door blast open and the demons surrounded us, ready to charge. But then Natsume did the most impossible thing ever! I could feel my eyes practically budging out- which can be embarrassing.

At first he faced the haemorphages, seeing that there was no escape, he…he jumped and began running on the- what you call that- **_ceiling_**!!! Like as though he had suction cups on his shoes or something, for Pete's sake; he was walking on the ceiling! Isn't gravity supposed to pull him down?! No human can defy gravity. Once he ran to the centre, he dropped himself down and kicked one of them so hard that the vampire flew and crashed into the wall knocked out- not dead. But still my brain felt like on tumor, I don't know maybe because he, what was that word again…oh yeah-

WALKED ON THE CEILING!

Michel was standing there with a disappointed look, with his hand on his forehead. I removed my hand from Ruka-pyon's grasp- which of course surprised Ruka-pyon and I even heard Natsume starting to curse- and looked at his pitch black eyes with a determined face, "Give me back Hotaru!" I yelled.

'_Wrong move_.' I thought regretting as he looked at me and I tell you; Michel didn't look pleased, he said something in French that I didn't get, something like- "Hotaru?! Ainsi votre après ma Bella, n'est-ce pas ?(So your after my Bella, are you?) Bien, je ne vous permettrai pas de l'avoir! (Well, I won't let you have her!)"

Since I was closer to Michel, he started to choke me and swear. I guess Natsume got distracted when Michel grabbed me, because then this demon used its nails and gave Natsume a deep cut on his right cheek. That made me angry. I got so angry that without thinking, I took a nearby book threw it aiming at the haemorphage, though I'm the one who needs help. Sadly, I'm not good at aiming and so the book crashed out the window. But I didn't regret it, you know why? Because the when the sunlight shone on a few demons, they kept screaming in agony as they slowly weakened and fell on the ground turning themselves back to human- which was freaky.

I found myself saying in astonishment "the sun's here." Then I heard Natsume shout to me and Ruka-pyon, "Hurry, start throwing stuff at the window!"--- Oh, we're going back to Tokyo now, can't write now, the vortex might suck your pages in.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… **

Ruka and Mikan nodded as they clutched onto the nearest stuff possible and aimed towards the window, breaking it down. The sun shone, its rays eliminating each ounce of darkness in the secluded room. Slowly one by one the vampire demons started to burn and fall into their knees out of weakness.

"NO!" Michel yelled in agony as holes of light passed through his body and he started disintegrating slowly soon…

…he vanished.

Once the smoke was gone, Mikan and Ruka could see Natsume walking towards them. "Any damage?" he asked simplistic as they nodded assuring him that they were fine. They coughed a little; the smoke hadn't cleared up so fast. They turned searching for Hotaru and soon they could see Hotaru lie on the ground a few feet away from them, a mixture of black and purple smoke surrounded her.

"Hotaru! Hotaru!" Mikan called out, her eyes lining up in tears. Hotaru fluttered her eyes open, giving a grateful smile, letting the mouse brown haired girl hug her tight, crying tears of joy.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

She stared at the paper for a while, with a small smile. She folded the pink note that had Mikan's curly handwriting and inserted it in her desk gazing at the stars.

Dear Narumi-san, 

Sorry I can't stay with you much longer, I've got school so we left off. Don't worry about the vampires, we've taken care of them; just attend to the victims' now- their back to normal. 

Love-Mikan 

Her slender finger pushed some of her hair behind her ears, she said to herself with an amused smile, "vous jouez avec le feu. (You are playing with fire)" **……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...**

"Natsume, thanks for coming with me!" the mouse brown haired girl said showing off her sweetest smile to her companion. He grunted as he accepted the medicines the pharmacist gave, "You're the one who dragged me here."

She batted her eyes adding to the innocent look she gave, "I don't know what you're talking about." She looked around, understanding what 'Home Sweet Home' meant. She put the medicines that were for the only senior citizen at her house in her back pack, and then she asked him hesitantly. "H-How did you do that? I mean defy gravity?" he kept silent then answered walking ahead of her, "None of your business." She was about to make a comeback when…

**Growl**

"G-Gome ne!" she scratched her head laughing to herself, he raised an eyebrow; man- this princess has a long way to go. "Let's go eat; I saw a western bar nearby." She quickly added skipping forward like a two-year old, with no other choice he followed sighing.

The bar they ended up in was a lively one, its wooden walls decorated with whisky bottles, bull's horns and posters of moustache-ioed, sombrero-wearing bandits offering bottles of tequila with a reassuring grin. They each got themselves a drink and sat down at a table, allowing their eyes to wander freely around the décor as Mikan galloped down two burgers and Natsume had beer. A couple of hours and another round later, they bid the bar farewell and headed back towards home with the medicines.

There was a long way to walk, and our poor Mikan couldn't bear it- the cold I mean. The cold winter winds had brought dark clouds and heavy rain had just poured before they left, it was dreadful for her to come out to buy her grandfather's medicines, with cold fingers and toes. She rubbed her hand to keep warm but was still shivering because she wore a dark pink spaghetti strap T-shirt and a black miniskirt over light purple bike shorts and her usual ankle length leather boots with studded bracelets with silver rainbow shaped earrings and did her hair into two half pony tails. And may I add how cute she looked tonight; the guys at the bar couldn't take their eyes off her.

Usually people would go around remembering about the rain, but the cold- that reminded him of something.

_Mikan, obvious of what he was about to do held his wrist. "Huh?" was all that escaped his lips when the young princess took his arm and put it over her shoulders as she cuddled up to him. _

_"Well, I felt cold and since you've got the power of fire, I guessed your body must be warm so…"_

Natsume, of course noticed how cold she was. Usually he would give- I mean throw his jacket on her face but this time…this time, well he doesn't have a jacket at the moment. He wore a black sleeveless polo that had a design of a dragon printed, revealing a bit of his chest and denim jeans. Instead he got a better idea, his eyes glistened with mischief.

"Better?" he asked softly, breathing her sweet fragrance.

"Y-Yeah." She replied baffled, sure she did the same thing before but why this time she feels so... Her cheeks blossoming with the color of mackintosh apples as soon as she felt Natsume's arm around her shoulder bringing her close, so close that her head was now on his shoulders and their legs kept bruising. To feel her soft, delicate hair beneath his cheek made something flutter in Natsume's stomach. He hoped the road they were treading wouldn't ever stop, that they could never get tired and that they could just keep walking together into the distance…

…and for some reason she hoped that too.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

_Ah…finally it's finished. Now that I made nobodies' real name haemorphage it doesn't sound like KH, I only borrowed the 'nobody' concept from KH but my story is way different from that. I couldn't help but add that NxM fluff; after all they ARE the cutest couple on earth. I really love it when Tsubasa makes Natsume jealous- so don't miss the next chapter introducing the mischievous Andou. Natsume is definitely NOT going to be happy… _

_Kairi _


	10. Happy love life NOT!

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?

_Thank you **younggem, Daemon Koneko, denii05, aleda12, kemcat16, SailorDayDreamer, ladalada **and every one who read my chapter but -like me- were lazy to review. Ahh…finally, some Natsume-Mikan time alone, I made Natsume fall in love with her early so that I could add a little spice to the story- with him going by any means to maker her his. I'll be focusing on Ruka and Hotaru later on, their just in innocent love at the moment. By the way- __Luna Koizumi appears in the manga. _

**_……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….._**

"Ohayo!" Mikan greeted in cheer jogging down the stairs in her school uniform. She seated herself on the table across her grandpa and Yuka and plopped a toast into her mouth. It's been two months since she's come back from Rosewood and approximately five months knowing Natsume. She munched loudly without any care in the world.

"Polka-dot's we're gonna be late for school." Natsume hollered standing in the door step with Ruka by his side. "Hai! Don't leave me!" she panicked and used both her hands to heat her breakfast. Natsume rolled his ruby eyes, _being late_ is the _only _thing she was good at. He saw her came running towards them, her glittery pink and orange schoolbag slung over her shoulders.

The whole way to school Mikan chanted about how much she enjoyed her new PS2. "I've even mastered a game- Tekken." She said enthusiastically to Ruka- who smiled at her and Natsume- who looked uninterested. She flung her fist in the air and stated proudly, "And I'm the best player there is!"

Natsume shook his head, causing his messy hair to get more ruffled, "I handled your butt ever since you challenged me." Mikan pouted and Natsume, surprisingly, found it cute.

Out of the blue, Ruka questioned, "Hey isn't that Koizumi Luna? The one who changes boyfriends ever week?" Mikan followed his gaze, there –not so away- stood a girl with a matured pretty face and shoulder length midnight blue curly hair and cobalt eyes, she was taller than Mikan and now was speaking to a jock that was her was her 14th boyfriend this month- or was it 15th? Mikan shrugged and proceeded to the school not noticing that Natsume kept glaring at that Luna, in shock. _How come he never noticed her?_

"OI! LOVE!" A voice caused her to halt halfway. Slowly turning back saw a guy with dark hair with a star tattoo over his cheek and a cheesy grin posted on his face, he was taller than Natsume by an inch and a half, perhaps aged 17, he wore the same uniform so the boys figured out that he studied here. "Tsubasa-sempai!" she lunged happily running towards him.

"3…2…" he counted, his cheesy grin not wavering the slightest bit waiting for the impact. "And 1-" Mikan jumped and hugged him tight, she almost squeezed the pulp out of that guy, Natsume thought that if they'd stay in that position a little longer than his intestines would rush out of his mouth.

"Who's that?" Natsume questioned Ruka with a tint of annoyance. Ruka put a hand on his waist, his voice uninterested, "Oh him? Everybody in the school knows that he's interested in Mikan-chan. His name is Andou Tsu--"

"Interested?" Natsume cut him off.

Ruka gulped. _'Maybe I shouldn't have said that_.'

He remembered what happened to Jesse Clarkson; the guy who asked Mikan out once a month ago- not that he was interested in her; he was just your average pervert. Okay, fine a date couldn't hurt…

…NOT!

Gawd, that guy flirted with her endlessly, and to make matters worse he tried to kiss Mikan, of course her being clueless (and dense) found a coin on the ground and bent to pick it so he ended up smacking the wall behind her. He's in the hospital now, not doing too badly. The doctor said he should be able to go back to school in two more weeks, but he should sit out during PE class. Rumors about a certain _somebody_ beat the crud out of that poor guy have spread like fire- too bad the boy was too afraid to even talk about it.

Tsubasa gave the sweetest smile he had before draping his hand around her shoulder, "Looks like you missed me as much as I did, love!" Mikan giggled, "Tsubasa-sempai, of course I'd miss you! You were studding abroad for a **year** now!" Mikan and Tsubasa strolled towards the boys. Natsume eyes narrowed at the two, he didn't like the idea that _Andou_ had his arm around Mikan as though she was his girlfriend, but the part that hurt him was Mikan didn't mind that at all, not the _slightest bit_!

"Let me introduce you to my friends, this is Ruka-pyon" she said pointing at Ruka who was petting the rabbit. "Nice to meet you, Ruka-pyon!" Tsubasa greeted.

"Ruka." Ruka corrected.  
"Ah…Ruka-pyon, nice name. So who might you be?" he ignored Ruka and faced Natsume. "Hyuuga Natsume." he replied flatly. "How's life, chap?" He started a conversation, so he could get to know the brooding teen age boy who was beginning to leave.

"None of your business." Natsume snapped before he walked away.

Tsubasa blinked, and his mouth spread into a wide grin. So, dearest Natsume was jealous, no? Just wait until he saw the two in the cafeteria… Tsubasa smirked.

Oh, what fun!

…Unless you were Hyuuga Natsume- of course it would be a living hell.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

"Oh my gosh! It's him!" a random girl squealed with her friends, they were crowded beside a locker but their gaze was fixed at Natsume –who obvious to the giggles didn't give a damn. Ever since he had discovered that he was attracted to Sakura Mikan, he hadn't been able to control himself. Hyuuga Natsume was famous for his unbelievable handsome features and the _bad boy_ reputation. He had girls at his feet that were willing to do anything that he wanted them to do.

Yet he had to fall for the one girl that didn't.

As he went past them to meet Ruka at his locker, but when he turned- his eyes met with a pair of amidst cobalt ones- they stared at each other, remembering flashes of their past until Ruka questioned, "Is something the matter?" Natsume didn't answer and left for class without a word leaving a confused Ruka to follow him. The girl gave a whistle under her breath once he left. "I see, he's still as hot as before." She commented as her friends gasped. "You **know** him?" She nodded, turning away, "He's my _ex_."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

"Hyuuga Natsume?" the hall room teacher questioned, taking the attendance. I kept quite. "Hyuuga Natsume?" she echoed once again in an irritated voice, still I said nothing- it's the usual. Before I came here, I've been pissing teachers although my life, getting low scores on purpose though I know all the damn answers, partying all night just to tick off Persona, so it's no biggie.

When I got irritated since she repeated my name for the tenth time, I finally answered in a lazy tone, "…Here." Then I focused my gaze on the manga on my lap, my legs on top of my desk. I could feel polka-dots angry gaze on me, hey, at least I get straight A's this time. But then I didn't know how her mind diverted her into her math's test, after she came to my desk once the bell rang and everybody left, she asked me, "Natsume I've heard you're the top of our class, even at math."

I knew where she's coming to so I just looked at her, more like _looked _at _her lips_- she may not be so flashy but her lips weren't bad. They were soft and plump- the kind when you kiss it'd be soft and warm unlike the thin and dry kinds—Ugh, I can't believe I'm thinking about that right now. _Hormones_- seriously.

She spoke shyly, "So can you…can you tutor me?"

"no." I said bluntly.

"Pleeeeaasseeee?"

"No."

"Pretty please?" she asked hopefully, batting her long lashes. I sighed; there's nothing to lose. Standing up I said "Fine."

Then she surprised me, she squealed and flung her arms around my neck in an innocent hug and kept thanking me, I guess I kinda liked the quick hug- because I told her to wait at the nearby park at sharp 5 pm.

But after she left, I saw the one girl I thought I'd never see; Koizumi Luna. There she stood, leaning on the door, she looked still the same. I grabbed her arm and hissed, "Why are you here?" however she smiled causing me to let go of her hand. I guess I was mad at her because I felt guilty. As much as I hate to admit; I used her. I may had a slight crush on her- since she was the hottest girl on my previous campus- but it faded away completely once she got into parties, drinking and drugs.

She still loved me, her eyes proved it. She may be the #1 flirt, but I know she used them to drive away her pain- just like I did. "Natsume, we need to talk…please?" her voice sounded so pleading and desperate that rubbed my guilt more though I didn't show and plus I'm sure she saw Mikan hug me. It's not that I'm a playboy (nor was); I only dated her because I had reasons. I told her monotonously, "Meet me at my place." I handed her out the address of Polka-dots house- well I wanted it to be as secretive as possible so I could get this over with without letting anybody's suspicion.

**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………...…………**

"EH? This is an Alice stone?" Mikan asked in awe as she stared at a glowing pebble in Hotaru's palm. _How on earth could something so small be so POWERFUL_? Hotaru sipped on her crab soup as she was seated beside Mikan in the cafeteria table, "Yes. As soon as I reverted to my previous self, I found this in my palm. Apparently Michel trusted me whole heartedly and placed the Alice stone within me. What a fool."

Mikan just giggled at her friend, but when she saw Tsubasa along with his friends, she stood up and waved her hand furiously to catch his attention, "Tsubasa-sempai! Over here!" Natsume rolled his eyes before sipping on his glass. As soon as Tsubasa seated himself with his friends, Mikan questioned with enthusiasm, "What have you been doing when you were abroad?"

Tsubasa held her chin and brought her face closer to his, the background soon went pink with flowers and bubbles, Mikan blushed when he said "Thinking about you."

"KAWAII!" Nonoko squealed, unaware of the angry presence located behind her. "Ah…Nonoko-chan, you should be a bit quieter…." Anna attempted to quiet Nonoko's squeals as she noticed the dark aura emitting from Natsume's body. "What? OH! RIGHT!" Nonoko gave a determined look and shut her mouth. Anna sweat dropped and Ruka gave a weak smile to his best friend. Natsume just sat quietly and ate his food in silence.

Hotaru put a hand on her forehead, fed up of the fact that Mikan kept eating her chocolate chip cookies like a glutton, she already had two bumps on her head from Hotaru's thick book- but I guess that didn't work. Thank God it didn't work, or else how **would **Tsubasa hatch an evil plan? He tried his best so that he could hide his smirk and gave an innocent and casual look. "Ano…Love, you've got cookie crumples all over your face."

Before Mikan could wipe her face off with her handkerchief, he cupped her face, leaned dangerously close to her and licked her skin. The girls in the cafeteria gasped and some cooed, the boys looked uninterested, Inchou-baka who was nearby fainted which caused his noodles on his tray to fall on his face (including the tray…), Anna giggled and Nonoko gasped, Ruka looked uncomfortable and nervous because of his best friend and Natsume, well... he crushed his glass, and it broke. His expression looked dangerous. MIGHTY dangerous.

Satisfied, Tsubasa leaned back into his seat and started casual conversation acting like nothing happened. Natsume gritted his teeth, heck sparks began to fly between those sapphire and ruby eyes.

Not so far away, a girl saw the whole scene- her throat had a hard lump, her lips went dry and her traumatizing magenta orbs began griming in tears. "Excuse me." she excused herself from the table she sat in and rushed towards the washroom so as to not burst out crying in front of the person she'd least want her tears to be seen.

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..**

Mikan was sitting in one of the benches at the park; she wore a navy-blue cashmere vest on top of a full sleeve orange and white stripes tank top with green Capri pants she bought in the flee market, her hair was tied in two cheap orange rubber bands. She glanced at the clock that read 6:30. She sighed, '_Where could he be?'_ she thought getting bored, then panicked '_Unless of course something bad happened! Oh no! Oh Kami-sama, maybe he met up with dangerous haemorhpages!' _

By then the clouds began to darken, she ducked with a cry as thunder and lightning crashed and mixed in a whirlpool of violence in the dark sky above and the slight drizzle soon became heavy rain. "I have to wait for him…" she mumbled, hiding under a banyan tree, her clothes drenched in rain and began to shiver uncontrollably, "…I hope he's alright." She worried unaware of what Natsume's _actually_ going through.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

I stared at Koizumi sitting on the couch across me. She wore a skirt that no words could describe the length and sipped on the instant coffee that I handed her, her one leg over the other. I watched her finish the coffee and she looked at me, "How have you been?"

"What are you dong here?" I snapped getting all business like.

"H-Huh?" she stuttered.

"What. Are. You. Doing. Here?" I spoke in syllables. She looked at the cup she held, "I was worried about you." She spoke softly. And then she got up and walked towards me and sat on my lap, her fingers playing with my hair as she spoke in a seductive tone, "Do you know how much time I wasted writing your name with hearts on my note book?"

Great. Just great. Here I am thinking of a way to break her heart without a fuss and she flirts. I spoke bluntly, "We broke up." She looked angry, "I never said we did!" she exclaimed. Then she came closer to me as though she was telling a secret and started to whisper sweet-nothings in my ear. I got damn irritated because of her and was about to stand up and drop her down so I could get her out of my life forever but before I could I saw _Mikan._

I could feel my eye widening as I saw her stand there, she looked hurt. Real hurt. _Damn it_. Even her pigtails looked hurt. "Who is she?" her voice quivered, her eyes brimming in tears. Before I could answer, Koizumi spoke for me getting out of my lap, "I'm his _girlfriend_." I stood there motionless, almost unaware of the layout surrounding.

Mikan's eyes narrowed at me, "Oh, I see. So here you were making out with your girlfriend…" she paused, by then her shoulders started to jerk and tears spilled trough her eyes and still she continued icily, "and there I was worried about you in the rain for 2 HOURS!" Which idiot would stay in the rain for more than 15 minutes? Then again she IS Mikan.

"Mikan…" I said trying to recover from the shock, I went towards her. Her breath came out in heavy puffs, her heart straining against her ribcage, beating erratically.

She continued, "Fine, I'm pretty or anything, and yeah…no guy has ever taken notice of me…" that moment I wanted so badly to hold her in my arms and say that they don't know what they're missing, "so does that mean I have no feelings?"

I stepped closer; if only she knew. Her voice became sad "I thought we were friends. The least you could do was telling me you couldn't make it! Do you know how much it hurts?!"

"Listen—"

"No, you listen!" She screamed louder than before, "I HATE YOU!"

I don't get it, its just 3 words- I hate you. But why the hell was I so affected by it? Those just 3 words hurt me more than I could imagine. It didn't sound right. I flinched; I wouldn't have been so hurt if she poked a dagger into me. I don't know what came over me, when she was about to leave, my body felt involuntary; I dragged her wrist, jerked her closer and…

**………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….…….**

_ Yeay! I'm done! I'm not sure if this is too short or mushy but don't forget to **review guys**!_

_Kairi _


	11. A ball?

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

Disclaimer: I do not own Gakuen Alice!!! But I can dream, can't I?**…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..**

_I am really, really sorry! I know I shouldn't be re-writing this chapter but I have reasons! (Points an accusing finger on my so-called friends) they put me up to it! They told me that I need to make Mikan " sound less in love with Natsume" so that's why I rewrote this chapter, plus I felt that the 1st and 4th chapter was a little pathetic and so I re-wrote that too. And furthermore, I promise not, I repeat NOT to rewrite stuff again. So anyway, please drop a review, I'll be writing the next chapter once Eid holidays are over. _...

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"My liege, we have awaited till our eyes have bled. We can not wait much longer!" a husky voice was heard in a secluded dark castle, where candle flames flickered surrounding a king sized throne. As we move further, the scene shows a bald green colored demon with two heads, his teeth looked like he had consumed fifty thousand kilograms of sugar- so pale and broken, and his ears were mighty odd, just like those of elves. He wasn't sitting on the throne; instead he bowed in a kneeling stance in front of the throne.

"Patience!" a commanding voice boomed through the dark castle making those who surrounded the throne shudder in fright. The tone changed to a rather cynically amused one, "I have you not heard of this ceremony that is taking place in Kingdom Alice? The one that shall convey our beloved princess?" the green haemorphage nodded. "Well, then…we have a party to crash!" The haemorphages cheered and hollered.

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No matter what, she'd always have a wide smile on her face. It always irked him to no end that someone could be so happy when he was so miserable.

But as time passed by, he'd discovered that he had a growing obsession with her. Whenever she happened to walk past him, he'd inhale her fresh strawberry scent. Sometimes, he would never notice it, but he would do some subtle things, only to just brush against her.

How did she make him abandon all control like that? No woman had ever made him lose control before. He couldn't help but muse at her pale golden colored skin with rosy lips, a light tinge to her cheeks that he was sure was natural rather than product based. Oh, she an angel in disguise! Everything about her made him desperate to have her as his own. He knew he was on the brink of obsession. To see those luscious pucker up...to see those olive eyes sparkle...to see her smile...

Actually, he was obsessed.

He wanted to rid himself of this addiction. If only for a day, he could make Sakura Mikan his.

Mikan's eyes had widened when his lips parted beneath hers, hungrily he pressed her lips heatedly against his own-his hand pressed at the back of her neck, not allowing her to escape this contact. Her heart thumped heavily as their lips molded as one, their breaths became one. Utterly, completely and totally shocked would be the best words to describe how she was feeling, she unconsciously closed her eyes. His lips moved against hers and his tongue slipped out to beg entrance to her mouth, but Mikan pulled away. Her expression was clouded, her thoughts a confusing jumble clutching the fabric over her heart as though it were to escape. No words were spoken as silence engulfed them on a seemingly endless minute.

Mikan looked up at him, innocence reflected in her twin pools, "W-Why did you kiss me?" She asked.

"Because I like you." He admitted, looking deeply into her eyes he felt he might as well plunge in head first, "Because I think I might be in love with you."

Mikan's face becomes redder and redder till no end until her eyes narrowed, devils thorns appeared above her head and fangs were filed to her teeth. "GET OUT OF HERE YOU MORON!!!" Mikan screeched. She grabbed onto a basket ball lying around and threw it at him; which of course he dodged then clicked his tongue out. Fuming, she threw more stuff at him. Not small things such as pieces of clothing or small pieces of lint that were found lying on the floor, either. BIG things. Like heavy books. And Flashlights. And purses.

His lips twitched into a small smile as he dodged every item her petite hands caught. **……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. **

**Tuesday, November 9:25 a.m. still at the Principal's office. **

Oh, my God, I am FREAKING OUT.

So here I am waiting for my death and total disappearance for a crime I never committed while the principle is on a meeting and I'm forced to wait with a sudden attack of nausea_. **Can my life get ANY worse? **_Oh, Kami-sama, what have I done?

It all started this morning- today I decided to go to school with Hotaru and so I did, quickly dressing up in my school uniform not bothering to iron it and that it's really crumply nor tie my hair neatly and sped out to school without waiting for anyone (do you seriously think I would?) When I reached school I saw Curly Perm sit on the teachers table, her manicured nails clutched her cell-phone.

"Shut up! He did not! I know! She is so crushing him." she said in this total girly voice. She then looked at my messy state and sneered on the phone, "Looks like some people really have run away from the mental asylum! Ugh, Sakura is SUCH a geek." I blushed in embarrassment.

Tiredly, I made my way to my seat. Soon the class filled up, but then a guy with spiky dishwater blonde hair came in- not Michel, if that's what you're thinking. He's Kokoryumi-kun, the class weirdo. He's really a nice guy, trying his best to make others laugh by fooling around. But one problem though- he's plain weird. And his corny jokes are even dumber.

As usual he came into the class grinning while tapping on his video cam. "This is my class, folks! Pretty neat, eh?" he said. Then he focused his camera on me and spoke, "And this lovely lady is the queen of pretty" I blinked, me…pretty? HA! Like that would ever happen, "introducing Sakura Mikan! _BURP_ oh, that's just my cheese burger."

I laughed pushing the camera away from me, my mood lit up again. "Ohayo Koko!" I chimed. His cheesy grin widens as he asked me, "What's with the gloomy face? Did Hotaru-san wham your head again in attempts for hugging her? Nyuk- nyuk- nyuk!" he laughed his head then whipped a tear, "Man, I kill myself."

See what I mean?

That's when I saw Natsume come in and occupy the seat behind me.

Ok. DON'T PANIC. Do _not_ panic.

Damn it! I forgot to breath. Ok breathe, in and out, in and out…

Yeah…I'm fine, I think. It's not that I care. _Really._ I don't.

Darn it, my face is still flushed from the thought, if this keeps up- he's gonna think that so-called kiss actually mattered. I'm sure he wouldn't remember that, yeah.

Probably.

Maybe.

Possibly...

Hopefully not…

Okay, I guess tonight mattered to me, I _really_ liked it- who new he'd be such a good kisser—no, no, no! Must not think pervy thoughts of that hentai. But that…THAT WAS MY FIRST KISS AFTERALL! I never thought that I'd get one in my life! And the worst part is that I **TOTALLY** gave in! I just don't know what to do?

Anyways, as soon as I saw Jinno-sensei come in, I straitened up, Perm switched her phone and immediately rushed to her seat and so the great entrance of Jinno-sensei was pretty scary as usual, the only thing needed to be added was horror music.

So there I was paying total and absolute attention towards Jinno-sensei but suddenly I began to feel a few pokes on my back. I just chose to ignore it, but when it became too annoying, I whipped my head back, and I saw Natsume- his chin placed on his palm with an amused look. Ugh.

"I don't have a pencil. You have one, don't you?" He asked. Doesn't he know the word _please_? He's so tokuseiikki (demanding).

"Sucks to be you. Now leave me alone!" I turned in front.

"If you're not going to give me one…" I froze when he tucked a bit of my messy hair behind my ears with his finger, and leaned closer to whisper in my ear, "_Then I'm just going to make you_."

_Why does he do this to me?_ Then I froze even more; maybe he's about to throw me down from Mt. Everest for not having a pencil especially for him! And then my body would be found in Tibet or maybe in Kashmir in India. Then those Indians would start to put those marigold garlands over me and burn my body! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Petrified, I turned back and yelled defensively, "I seriously don't have one!"

Natsume's amused expression sort of screwed up all of a sudden glancing behind me, "Shit." He muttered.

Slowly turning towards his gaze, I saw that Perm snickered and her friends high-fived, Ruka-pyon looked at us with concern, Hotaru slapped her head, Anna and Nonoko gasped, Inchou-baka paled, everyone stared at us…including Jinno-sensei. "Is there something you're willing to share with the class, Hyuuga, Sakura?"

Oops…?

I gulped hard standing up cautiously. Natsume, still sitting, shrugged, "What I do is my business." I could hear the boys whistle while some one yells out, "Natsume, you're the man!" Jinno-sensei's eyes narrowed at us, his frown deepening. Why? Why? Why did he have to say that?

"Go to the principle's office. Now." Then the realization struck me.

"No, sensei, don't leave me with him! Natsume's plotting to throw me from Mt. Everest! And my body would be found by Nepalese or even worse, INDIANS—"

"Shut it, _drama queen_." Natsume sneered putting his hand on my head from the behind as I gulped. Out side the principle's office, I nervously watched Natsume lit a cigarette by a small flame that played over his finger as he stood beside the 'No Smoking' sign. Uh-oh, the door's opening…I'm doomed.

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Mikan's hands began to sweat as they slowly reached the metallic door knob, as she entered she could smell the rose room-spray. The first thing she saw was a women -who must be in her twenties- bow to show courtesy griping the end of her skirt with one hand while the other placed between her chest and shoulders, her outrageous grey hair falling over her shoulders.

"I am Dr. Otonashi Yura, my Princess. It's a pleasure to meet you." She said in a strange accent. Mikan felt relieved and placed her hand over her chest, letting a heavy sigh. "Oh…I thought I was—DID YOU SAY PRINCESS??????"

Natsume was however not surprised, "You work for the Alice administration, right?"

She nodded and handed a fancy postcard that was sent by the Alice administration while she continued, "His majesty has sent for me and I shall teach you to become an elegant princess…and it does look like it might take a while." She ended in a slight disgusting murmur as she looked at the modern-tale princess from head to toe. Mikan scratched her head and smiled sheepishly- her hair was like as though she had not combed for a century and her clothes were mighty crumpled.

Then Otonashi said something scary, while pulling out a stick and tapping it in her palm, "…and I'm allowed to take any necessary actions. It says so in the letter." Natsume puckers a brow, Mikan sweat-drop.

Mikan gulped feeling uncomfortable when Otonashi went around her in circles, '_she seems like a vulture ready to attack her prey…'_ Mikan thought. All of a sudden Otonashi pulled Mikan's rubber bands making the gawky princess' hair sway down her shoulders gracefully reaching up to her waist.

"Hmm…you do have a pretty face that is hidden deep within you..." Mikan blushed scratching the back of her head, "Aw, shucks, I'm not really—"

"All you need is a little snip-snap and you'll be simply perfect. I shall fix you up for the ball!" Otonashi exclaimed, clapping her together. Mikan blinked, "Ball?"

"Yes, ball." Otonashi said, her eyes beaming as she thought of plans for Mikan, "you have to do a speech for your crowning ceremony and so there his majesty has arranged a ball."

Before Mikan could say anything, the principle came out handing a cup of iced cappuccino as he handed then to the three he said, "Don't worry, I'll send Sakura-san with you. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I do pray he gets better…" the lovable tangerine felt her blood turn cold, because of what the principle said.

She walked to them fast, "what is it?" her ask was panicky; "is it jii-chan? Is his cancer back? –_Gasp_- Am I about to be a grand-father-less teenager? You can tell me, I can take it." Dr. Otonashi puts the cup down and heads off the office while she told Mikan stiffly, "you shall receive your answers in the car."

"No really," she said trailing after her, with Natsume trailing after them, "you can tell me now. I can take it. I swear I can!" the three heard the principle call, "Don't worry about the punishment Jinno-sensei stated for you! You concentrate on your sick grandfather now.

_'So it was true! He was sick!'_

Mikan kept questioning stuff until she heard Otonashi sigh deeply. "There is nothing wrong with your grandfather." She said, "I had only made up an excuse so that I could take you shopping for the ball. Don't worry about the speech, you shall be given a written speech that you just have to read out loud…is something the matter?"

Mikan's jaw dropped, Otonashi closed it. "Y-You lied?"

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It was a beautiful spring afternoon; the sun shone, the birds chirped, and the flowers seemed to wave happily in the gentle breeze as they opened the students' faces to the sun.

"Stop doing that, Ruka."

Ruka who at that moment had been preparing to steal a snack from the picnic basket turned to look at his comrade, the very epitome of innocence and asked, "Doing what?"

Her quick sand like violet eyes glanced at his cerulean blue eyes, tearing her eyes off from her book, her voice soft and monotone as ever, "I'm sure you would never dream of taking something from that basket Ruka- for it would surely cost you more than you could imagine, so why don't you give it to me and then go off and find out where Hyuuga is."

Ruka frowned, sighing, "One bite?"

She shook her head slapping his hand away from the basket without looking up from her thick spell book, "Get gone."

"Please?" he queried, his bottom lip protruding in an attempt at looking meek and docile and exuding an aura of 'How mean of you to take away my food when I'm hungry.'

"Fine," she said as, "That would cost you about 400 yen. Deal?"

Ruka and Hotaru exchanged glances when they saw Natsume and Mikan stand there, with Mikan's expression sort of unpleasant, seeing that Mikan was busy mumbling curses, Natsume told the two haemorphages, "Alice wants her to do the crowning ceremony. And it's a debate kind."

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_Ah, yeah, I'm working on a fan-art specially dedicated to this story, I think Hotaru looks cute but Mikan isn't all that right…ugh- I'm awful when it comes to drawing guys. Like I said before, I'd be appreciated if you guys dropped a review._


	12. Disaster brews into Alice

_People, why are you guys into unnecessary fight? I really don't mind what JC-zala said, I never thought of it as an insult- it's more like an advice! She's a popular writer and to think that he read my story and reviewed makes me so proud! No offence but next time please no more fights. _

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"What. The. Fresh. Hell. Is. This?" Mikan's eye twitched; first of all she was unwillingly taken out of the school in prospects of bitter lies and the next minute she ends up in the place she'd sworn herself not to enter. Mikan stared blankly at the huge sign that read in curly neon letters 'LAKME BEAUTY PARLOR'.

Otonashi grabbed Mikan's wrist, her usual dry voice showed some unusual excitement, "I can't possibly let you go into the ball like that…what you need is a makeover!"

"Eh!" Mikan exclaimed stumbling a little, good thing Otonashi's grip was tight. "Y-You're kidding, right?"

Otonashi made a tut-tuting noise before dragging the wailing princess along, "Well, you have look at your best for you are to compete against Shouda Sumire."

Mikan completely froze; she needed some space to breath.

"Na (wha)?"

"Yes, if you don't deliver this speech right…then Shouda-san would become the next princess of Kingdom Alice—"

_THUD_

Otonashi panicked as she fanned a paper fan over the unconscious Mikan.

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She scribbled on her note pad hard, so as to avoid his pleading puppy-dog eyes. "Hotaru…please?" his lips wobbled as he whispered to her. Yet she kept quite completely ignoring his pleads. Through the corner of her eyes she could see Ruka move his chair towards her desk. Frustrated, she took her chair and moved it three feet away from him.

Ruka moved his seat right up to hers; a pleading smile formed his lips. Hotaru growled and shifted her chair again.

Shift.

" Grr..."

Shift.

" Grr..."

Shift.

"Grr..."

"Excuse me, Imai-san and Nogi-kun; will you please explain why you two are at the other end of the room when your seats are over on the opposite end?"

Hotaru and Ruka both looked up amid snickers of laughter among their classmates. Jinno-sensei was looking at them from over his long spindly glasses and raised a bushy orange-brown eyebrow. Jinno-sensei roared, his voice echoed through the classroom frightening the poor students, "GET OUT!"

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"Never in my life have I disrupted a clean record." She hissed, her stern glare almost burnt a hole in him. He fiddled his fingers looking at the floor that seemed so interesting all of a sudden, finding the correct word he finally said, "G-Gomen"

Hotaru, however huffed slightly and leaned on the wall, "I thought of giving you_ that_ photo you wanted so badly…" Ruka's eyes lit up, "but after what has happened now…I wouldn't keep my hopes up if I were you."

"HOTARU, PLEASE! ---"

Ruka stopped midway as soon as he heard a few murmurs from the empty biology lab that was a few paces away from them. Secretive murmurs were something Hotaru wasn't into but considering that the voice was familiar, she signaled the blonde to join her in sneaking at the voice.

"H-Hai, Hotaru-sama!" Ruka sweat-dropped at Hotaru who held his "photo" in the air when he hesitated to follow. The two peeped into a door and eventually found a guy standing before the window, his back faced them and his voice were in angered whisper like hissing as he spoke on his cell phone.

"_Comparing us to those trashes…we're completely different. That includes you too Natsume-kun. You should learn to accept the truth rather than trying to fight back. Isn't it haunting and stressful? They will find out eventually who- or shall I say __**what**__ you are…so why are you sticking to them?"_

"…"

"_He-he, cat got your tongue, hon? Well, let them dream a little longer…for all I know death awaits them."_

"why you--- " Natsume stopped when he felt someone's presence.

When Hotaru noticed Ruka was sneaking out, she grabbed his arm and pulled him inside with such a force that he landed on top of her as both fell onto the floor. His hand cushioned her head as they greeted the ground. The two immediately felt themselves blushing. Natsume whipped his head towards the intruders when he heard them fall on the ground, his expression shocked and caught off balance.

After an awkward pause, his gaze hardens and then he yelled, "what do you think your doing?!"

The flushed blonde got off Hotaru and then heard her say, "Chill Hyuuga, we didn't hear anything…" however that didn't convince Natsume, he just stormed through the door and banged it shut loudly. Hotaru took a deep breath looking at the door, "why do I have a feeling that something's fishy?" **……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….**

Her hair was pulled back from her face, pinned to her head with sapphire ball clips. A slim fitting sleeveless navy dress with a boat neck which fell to just above her knees clung to her figure. The last details to her outfit were the small diamond droplet earrings pinned to her ears.

She looked every bit the rich impressive business woman. Simply perfect for the evening ball.

There she stood, talking to her escort, who flashed several smiles as Ruka watched, his insides fuming as his fingers tapped the table in annoyance. He was glaring at Hotaru and her date the whole time, not bothering to have a bite of the complimentary shrimps-on-a-toothpick dish-- sure he's a vegetarian, but at least he could have tasted the luscious green salad. But noooo; he just had to sit there and secretively watch every action of the two.

His temper rose when he saw her date had placed his hand on the small of her back while socializing with a few aged people in suits. Natsume, dressed in a black suit on top of a red silky and slightly unbuttoned shirt over a pair of jeans with a silver chain placed on his neck, sweat-dropped when Ruka snatched Natsume's glass of vine from his hand and gulped it down, without noticing it wasn't his "water".

Surprised, Ruka looked into the cup, finding red alcoholic vine. He tasted it with a sip as he felt a slight, pleasant tingling sensation invade his senses, a sort of drowsy humor, then all went blissfully. "Fill 'er up, mate!" he exclaimed with a sudden gush of happiness.

Hotaru diverted her attention on Ruka while Taka, her ebony-haired colored date also a cousin of Otonashi, blabbered about how the he enjoyed watching _Sesame-Streets_, some personal stuff he didn't mind sharing for he was drunk. At first Ruka had one glass, slowly two, then it became three… boy, oh boy!

"Ruka-kun needs to shave his hairy legs!" a redhead giggled while rubbing the young man's legs, she was just a random girl Ruka met at the ball. "Don't you think so, Taka-kun?" Her drink was wobbling in her hand and slipped from her hands, causing the beer to spread everywhere.

In case you're wondering, Ruka didn't mind that people were touching his legs. It was just something you don't care about when you're really drunk. You could tell they were all out of line because of their constant giggling and the flush on their cheeks.

"I've got scissors! Will that help, Nanoha-chan?" the ebony-haired man suggested, holding a pair of nail clippers.

The whole group was cracking up until the drunken Ruka refused to have his legs shaved, though he didn't have much of hair on his legs. "No! You can't use those on my legs! That only works on hair!" he informed, scolding them with a finger. He almost stood up to emphasize his disappointment, but he could not balance himself at all and fell beside Natsume, who grunted.

A girl with her seaweed-green hair in a neat bun while few curled locks framing her face wearing a fur cloak arrived, well the girl was none other than second-in-line princess Sumire. Upon spotting Natsume and Ruka, immediately she rushed towards them, beaming. "Natsume-kun, Ruka-kun! What a surprise!"

She squealed when Ruka said with glee, "I really wanted to see you!"

"All that drinking has gotten to your head." Natsume murmured, looking at Ruka give Sumire a teddy-bear hug. "Mikan's speech is to be delivered in exact 30 minutes, yet she locked herself in her Royal chamber." Natsume turned to see Hotaru. "Apparently she thinks that people would laugh at her for some reason."

Sumire smirked evilly. "Sakura wants to chicken out from her big day? Gees, I knew she is a baka, but to that point?" and she laughed, looking to Natsume for approval. She found none, just a deeply angered glare, which promptly silenced her.

All of a sudden some one's phone on the table rang. Sumire placed her cup of punch down, and quickly answered the phone, not bothering to ask permission o whoever owned the phone. "Hello? SAKURA!" All heads, except Natsume (although his ears were attentive), simultaneously turned. Hotaru snatched the phone from the sea-weed haired girl, claiming the phone to be her own.

"Where are you?" There was a long pause, and Hotaru sighed. "Mikan, you look fine." Another pause. "Do you want me to come with you?" Another three or four seconds past by, and Hotaru snapped her phone shut. "Well, it looks like Mikan's by the front door."

Otonashi, who arrived with a plate of brownies, stepped up and asked, "Who? Mikan-hime?" Hotaru gave her a small wave and then nodded, "Yes, she's kind of embarrassed of coming in by herself. She feels" -Hotaru waved quotation marks in the air- "extremely exposed."

Otonashi fumed, she spent so much to get the girl straitened up. With out any warning she aimed for the entrance door, saw the shyly standing Mikan and dragged her wrist and then gave her a small push making Mikan almost trip on her heels and face the crowd.

The spot-light hit her, trumpets were blown for her grand attention, and people started whispering and clapping while a few bowed as she walked down the red carpet, she gulped- she hadn't got too much attention in her life before. When her gaze locked with Sumire's green orbs, Sumire rudely stuck her nose into the air with an 'hmph' while Mikan pouted stomping away.

There Mikan stood, with long silky mousy brown hair was highlighted with honey-blond and was left down up to her waist with bouncy curls at the end, two red glittery heart-shaped barrettes at each side of her bangs. She had on a silk pearl colored dress, which glinted in the light. It reminded Hotaru of a ballerina dress, the way it was strapless, short and how it puffed out at the bottom. White lace trimming stuck out from the bottom of the dress and an ebony lace bow was in the back of the dress, at the waist. She couldn't believe that she had on an expensive vintage Amethyst Bib necklace and a pair of silver cascading earrings for the finishing touch.

Mikan gulped glancing at the huge grandfather clock that read '8:30', her speech was at 12 sharp and she never delivered a speech. She wanted to disappear like mist- real bad.

But sometimes you have to think before you wish.

Because when Sumire and Mikan were about to step on the stage…the lights turned off and when it came back…

…Mikan and Sumire disappeared.

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"Waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!" Sumire screeched as a portal opened in someone's ceiling and she was spat down, landing on the ground flat on her face. Soon Mikan joined and landed with a thud, uttering something about 'good thing I landed somewhere soft.'

"SOFT? Sakura, get your ass off me!" Sumire barked from underneath Mikan. Mikan let out a sheepish grin getting off her.

After Sumire stood up, Mikan screeched and jumped into Sumire's arms when she saw a skeleton head in the cage they were in. Sumire, of course dropped Mikan on the cold floor and while Mikan was shuddering looking at the skeleton, Sumire examined the rusty dark prison they had paid a visit to.

"My sincerest welcomes, Mikan-hime"

The two slightly gasp and turn towards to find the culprit. He flipped his brown locks aside and took Mikan's trembling hands, laying a kiss on it as he bowed. His violet eyes mused at the way she snatched her hand away from him and backed away from him, cornering towards the wall in fright.

"R-Reo…"

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_Finally I'm finished with the chappie. I know I haven't written for a while and so you can sue me (but spare me a little if possible) okay, my new name is Clover Luck, not Kairi Sakura anymore- I seem to like the new one…anyway thanks or the reviews guys- by the way, someone asked me who Jane Eyre was- she was a character in a book of the 1880's, she was a not so pretty poor mistreated orphan and as she grew up- the author tells how her life bloomed. _

_ Clover Luck _


	13. Waiting to be saved

**Play With Fire**

_I know I update late but this time it wasn't exactly my fault. You see, my mom wants me to wear some pink frock my whacko uncle got for my birthday- something about getting in touch with my feminine side (shudders) I, of course, poured chocolate sauce over it pretending to make it look like an "accident" but I got caught eventually and so my mom band me from computer for over half an hour. _

_Anyways thanks for the reviews or chapter 11 and 12 guys__**: clarizza braza, Sakura, 1yamayoshi, Melissa1995, JC-zala Caritate, mountainelements **__("his majesty" is Sakura Masaya- Mikan's dad who passed away and I'll show Luna later- if you guys would like me to),__** CH.E.RRYxDROPS, Sie-sama, fantisylover, BlueNobody**__(oh, that? it was just a spelling mistake- word power auto corrected it wrong, its corrected now)__**, denii05, ladalada, Neko246, kmc27, Aliezz, **__**RoMaNTiCiLLuSioNS**__ …sorry if I've missed someone_

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**Wednesday…lost track of time- spooky prison with skeleton-head, Inchou and Perm**

I watched one of the AAO members who were in charge of guarding the prison I was trapped into, his mouth hanging wide open and releasing a steady stream of drool onto the desk not too far away from the prison, ruining a little of his Goth make-up. Buried within in his monstrous tangled mass of bright blue colored hair was a pair of headphones. Vaguely, I could hear the drums and bass line of the music.

When he shifted his head to the other side, I quickly ducked my head and began counting the leaking droplets of water from the ceiling just like how I was killing my time before all of that staring-- 16789…16790…16791…16792… I was peacefully counting my droplets of water until I heard the hard metal bars swing open and those Goth haemorphages with hot-pink hair- no kidding; pink- carried a fragile figure that was drenched in red liquid.

My eyes lingered at the figure that was carried like a log; that combed sandy-brown hair…those thick glasses (or at least what was left of it)…that loose tee and shorts was so familiar! I froze.

"Inchou!" I screamed as Curly Perm and me rushed and grabbed hold of Inchou who was harshly thrown over the hard floor. I held his fragile figure in my arms, my eyes raged at those haemorphages who merely gave a nasty laugh and banged the prison shut, blocking the light much to my dismay.

As I diverted my gaze to Inchou- I could have sworn I completely freaked out. Was it because of his reaction on the brink of death? A sad smile that appeared to be stitched on was in place of his lips and blood poured from them. A puddle of blood surrounded us; I somehow hated the way the ends of my puffy dress were dipped in blood- HIS blood. Sure he bugged me sometimes, but that doesn't mean that I don't care for him.

"It's over…" he breathed in a voice barely above a whisper. As he continued, it shocked us girls that he continued to smile when his eyes poured down salty tears. "My family is dead…_**they**_ killed them for no reasons…and I'll soon die…"

"I-Inchou…" Perm's voice trembled; her finger traced his cheeks as she bent down at him.

I soon learned that just because I understood who 'they' were- the haemorphages. However I stared at space when he told the whole story, his voice was total blur, more like **I **was in a different world…to be honest within a split second I felt some one poke a dagger and twist it around my insides…his parents died because of…

…me.

Because the haemorphage wanted to make ME weak, because the haemorphage were after ME, because Inchou was friends with ME!

My eyes started to swell up in salt solution but surprisingly I was able to shove away my tears, shocking the two. What surprised them more was when I told them something that lightened up our spirits, ready for action, "I can't die yet…I'm not gonna die yet…" I said. "I'm not gonna sit and sulk while my people are dictated by these Goth baboons, nor am willing to let my rightful kingdom get into Curly Perm's hands **nor** am I letting them get away with what they did to Inchou! What I'm gonna DO is get outta here!"

A sudden whack on my head stringed, as I rubbed my head I glared at Perm for that. "You baka! How the heck are we to leave this dumb place?"

I was about to open my mouth but the something caught my eye, my lips twitched into wide grin. Following my gaze, the two said in union, "Holly sushi…"

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"Heavens, how has this happened?"

"My, it seems the princess has vanished!"

"Where has she gone to?"

It seemed that the castle couldn't get any noisier than the fish market, Hotaru felt. Her lavender orbs looked at the flame caster. "Go look for her all over the kingdom, now!" he ordered the guards who nodded obediently solemnly, marching and spreading themselves over the busy little town.

Natsume plopped himself on the nearby couch, his head rested over the sofa, watching the pretty chandeliers that hung above the pale colored ceiling, his mind kept playing on one thing:

"_Comparing us to those trashes…we're completely different"_

"_They will find out eventually who- or shall I say what you are…so why are you sticking to them?"_

"_Well, let them dream a little longer…for all I know death awaits them."_

He sighed; though his expression didn't show any trace of worry for the mousy-brown haired girl, his heart was beating erratically against his chest. He looked around the walls of the castle, a strong longing that she would appear all of a sudden, smiling at him like nothing has happened, shouting at him for teasing about her printed undergarments, turning red when he publicly declares her to be 'his girl' and she swats his arm, telling him to make himself scarce. Surprisingly, he listens, and makes to leave, but not before kissing her hand gently and tucking a rebellious strand of hair behind her ear. He takes advantage of the stunned expression on her face to press his lips against hers, and then- he runs.

But she wasn't there.

A voice distracted him from his thoughts, "Hyuuga…I think I tracked her down. She must be somewhere in the western forest of Alice, the old prison tower perhaps. But the superiors ordered us to stay at the castle for the time-being, until they are sure of it that is."

Natsume frowned, "I'll go on my own"

"Seems like I could make myself useful for you, Natsume-sama." He turned around to meet the girl's bright aqua-blue orbs.

It's not everyday you get to see a teenage girl with ity-bitty fangs filled to her teeth and sharp ears like that of an elf. She had on a pale pink halter top closed around her neck prettily and exposed her tummy with two strings of bright gold lace running down the sides. Her skirt was simple – a saffron pastel stripe ruffled garment, nothing special; her hands were only adorned with several aurous bracelets and knee-length red boots completed the look. Her matured and gentle-looking face and tanned complexion was highlighted by her long magenta hair that has been tied into a red ribbon at the ending strands of her hair.

"Zhang Xue… what are you doing in here?" Natsume asked, standing up. Zhang Xue was Natsume's slave gift presented by none other than Persona though she was older, she looked about 21 years old but she's been living from the middle ages. She was quite useful, her powers and ability were not to be made fun of since she mastered the use of two huge blades, one in each hand. She too, like him and Hotaru, had the seal of the dragon.

"I came here as fast as I could when I heard about the princess' disappearance. I've decided to help you."

"I don't need it; I can do this on my own." He turned his heels and walked away, but stopped when he felt her clutch his arm.

"My purpose is to serve you whether anybody likes it or not." Natsume raised a brow, "Will you come with me if I break the rules and find her on my own?" She stared at him, shocked. '_What's up with this guy? He can get in a whole lot of trouble if he disobeys Persona's orders…!'_ she thought before smirking and adding, "That sounds fun."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"Sakura…once I get down…your dead meat!" Perm told me icily.

We were at the moment climbing down the prison tower, which might be over 50 feet tall and so we had to convince ourselves not to look down. But the tower was made outta rocks- the sharp ones! It gave me ugly bruises over my hands. I probably looked like something from _Pet Semetary_. You know, when the pets come back to life? I was just a little less hairy.

But I was nothing as compared to how Inchou was right now, the deep wounds and massive loss of blood I mean- it hurts to think that the poor guy might not survive by the time we reached down the tower. He was so silent and didn't even complain or say those weird things he learned from stalking after me all semester. I often tried to glance up at him, and his expression was still the same: determined.

I was so busy trying to peek at him that I didn't notice that one of my heels had slipped off my leg and fell down about 26 feet below us, landing hard like a comet on some guy's head. The guy looked up.

I'm so busted.

I could feel Perm hold my wrist tightly and drag me upwards again until the three of us stopped at the nearest window. Perm took my other heel and crashed it through the mosaic painted glass window. After jumping into the hallways, I picked up my skirt above my bare feet and headed straight for the small janitors closest. Okay- seriously, who does keep a janitor's closest in a 50-FOOT, CENTURY OLD TOWER?

I breathed hard; the three of us did not utter a word as we saw shadows of feet pass by from the bottom of the door. "Sakura! This is your entire fault" Who'd you expect? "EH! I-It's not my fault! It was a mistake! Besides, you should have warned me that my slippers were slipping off!" I retorted lamely. "What?!" she shrieked then attempted to pull my hair.

"Shouda-san, Mikan-san, calm down!" Inchou said nervously, stopping me from biting her hand. It's a bad publicity for a princess to portray the behavior of a two year old and so I straighten up, ignoring the nasty glares coming from Perm. Inchou said concerned, "I hope we make it to the castle in time." yeah, well me and Perm had to explain EVERYTHING to Inchou before we broke out.

"Hey, Sakura-san…" I looked at her grimly, she continued, "I heard that you had used the Alice of Teleportation earlier? Well, use it now!" I loathed that voice with the fire of a thousand suns. She had such a dull, arrogant tone that made you think she was perpetually bored and unimpressed with the world around her.

"Eto…gomene, I can't control my Alice properly, if I make a little bit of a mistake then we might end up in an unknown place." Perm slapped her forehead and said that she couldn't take a chance like that.

There was a soft sound that had come from behind the doors, heading this way. It was like a sound of someone wearing a rubber shoes walking on a newly floor-waxed floor. Panic was our first reaction, until Inchou suggested to use the trap door above us as an escape. Since Inchou was the most injured one, it was best for Perm to climb up and then lend a hand for Inchou to come in. Unfortunate for me, it was too late.

The door cracked open and I waited for Reo's eyes to meet mine.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

"Ruka, where are you taking me?" the said boy just grinned wider, pulling the wrist of the lavender-eyed girl out of the castle to the elegantly raised front garden. He stopped upon reaching the centre of the garden, and turned towards Hotaru, he was still drunk- she could say since he didn't portray his usual shy and quite behavior.

"Why am I brought here?" she questioned, her hands on her hips, taping her foot out of annoyance. Ruka continued to smile, "You're worried about Mikan-chan, right? So I decided to show you something that might lighten up your spirits. So here it is!" after Hotaru stared at him figuring out whether he was demented, she sighed, "Ruka…there's nothing over here. Do me a favor and have some rest."

"No! Stay! I'll prove it to you that there is something very interesting over here!" he insisted and dragged her in between a circle. Pink was the color her cheeks had showed as he intertwined his fingers with her own with least hesitation and closed his eyes, signaling her to o so too which of course she did. She could hear him count as she tried her best not to look obvious.

She gasped out of surprise when fountains that surrounded them slashed enormous spring water over their heads, drenching the two. But Hotaru didn't mind. Ruka laughed whole heartedly dragging her all over the fountains, splashing water over her. She giggled silently as they ran in circles over the ground fountains, hand-in-hand.

Once the ride was over, Ruka clutched his stomach, still laughing and Hotaru let out soft giggles, twirling the ends of her wet dress to squeeze the water out. He said, still chuckling "You liked it, didn't you?" She stared at him; she didn't feel like lying this time. She tucks a stray strand of jet-black hair behind her ear, a blush adorning her cheeks as she avoided his gaze on her, "Umm…thank you."

"No prob. I just…I just hope they're okay…" she certainly knew who 'they' were referred to.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

He raced through the trees, jumping from branch to branch as he fixed his eyes on one direction. _'He passed by here, I can feel it…' _he thought, his hands clenching tight, the silver necklace was secured around his neck and hidden inside his leather trench coat. '_This is it. I'll make him pay hell' _he jumped down and stopped at a clearing. _'It's too quiet…' _he observed, eyes closed and ears picking up any faint sounds.

Although he was out of Alice, he was still in the forest near the town, and it would usually be filled with chirping birds and scurrying land animals and bugs. Yet somehow, not even the fishes in the small river a few feet away from him seemed to be active. _"He's here." _And to answer his assumptions, he jumped away, right in time to avoid a direct attack from Reo's gun-shot.

The culprit, loaded his gun once more, a mused smirk etched his lips, "Long time no see." The sadistic voice-manipulator eyed the matured teenager and quirked both eyebrows. "I can say that you improved, a lot may I add. Looks like we have disobeyed the superiors, have we? Tell me…why is it that you seem so determined to save the little princess?"

"That is none of your concern you sick bastard…" he growled in response, trying hard to not charge head on at the merciless criminal.

"Of course it is, how could you be so mean?" Reo feigned a sad expression. Xue, who quietly watched the two from waiting for Natsume's command, puckered her eyebrow when Reo got back to his cynically amused look, "Looks like I have what you want."

Natsume clenched his jaw, his eyes blazed at the scene of a tearful eyed Mikan who was brought from behind a banyan tree by a haemorpahge who had one arm around her shoulder while the other had pressed a metal gun against her head, threatening to shoot anytime.

"You let her out of this!" he yelled with furry, his heavy sword magically appearing in his palm. Reo smirked, "then fight for her."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. **

_This is a stock phrase but- please review!_

_Clover Luck_


	14. When you're gone

**PLAY WITH FIRE**

'_Me, a princess? Yeah, right!'_

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

His lungs were on fire, but he could not stop running. Above, through the endless latticework of spires and clotheslines, the sky was a sullen gray, hissing as it released sheet upon sheet of rain. Intermittent thunderbolts smote the ground with detonation force, and the air cracked and reeked of ozone. Through the war drums of his heartbeat he heard footsteps pounding behind him, gaining.

While the battle continued, Xue, using her super-stretch Alice, stealthy made her way towards Mikan- who struggled to get out of the haemorphage's tight grip. Stretching hands devoured the haemorphage from behind, covering his whole body and squeezing the pulp out of him and then slowly crushing his bones externally, Xue managed to kill the Nobody who collapsed on the wet clay-mud.

Mikan gasped loudly, and was about to run when Xue- the Chinese killing machine, managed to grab her by the wrist. She spoke as calmly as possible upon noticing Mikan shudder, "My name is Zhang Xue. I am here to save you." Surprisingly, that convinced Mikan, gaining her normal composure, she was handed one of Xue's twin blades by the owner herself.

"Take this. This might help." Xue said, "I've been informed that there were three of you. I must find the rest. You stay here and fight."

Mikan gulped, out of embarrassment she stared at the sleek dagger in her palm that kinda looked like it was a flat bottle cap with a deep whole it- because of the way it had sharp blades and spiky edges with a hole on between to hold it. She said in a squeaky voice, "I can't fight."

Xue put her hand on Mikan's shoulder as she spoke good naturedly, cracking a small smile "Its okay. I'm sure you can do it. Just have faith in yourself." With that she rushed towards the tower. Mikan looked at the blade then turned around to face a newly arrived haemorphage who was commanded by Reo to capture her once more.

"Heh, it's really sad to fight such a bishojo like you." Mikan blushed at the comment but then shook her head and charged with a "_Hiyaaaaaaaah_" Her swish was clumsy and so it didn't work, taking the opportunity, the blue haired haemorphage gave deep cut against her right arm making her stumble and fall on the ground.

"MIKAN!" Natsume yelled. He had no time to deflect the next big blow as the spike was instantly removed and he was whipped across his chest, sending him sailing into several trees across the other side of forest. His back hit one of the trunks, making an impression on it and dust clouds blew about his fallen unmoving form.

Natsume!" Mikan yelled this time, as her eyes were fixated on her fallen Goth teenager. Movement finally caught her unchanging eyes and she leapt away, too slow as she was cut across her arm. She shakily held her blade in both hands, blood dripping down her arm and onto her hand. The haemorphage was still far from her reach and as much as Mikan hated to admit it, she didn't have a lot of strength in her to go charging in. Being with Natsume all this time (not purposefully) she learnt a few of his fighting moves.

Nothing but rage was flowing through her veins as she rushed towards the haemorphage full speed. The idea had been stupid as she was thrown back, landing heavily and painfully on her back and then rolling onto her side. Luckily her blade was still in hand, but Mikan's wound on her arm had not healed and she had now been cut against her thigh and a splitting headache was arising too. She watched from the ground as something flew through the air and connected with the haemorphage, right in its eye, disintegrating it to shreds.

"NATSUME!" Mikan yelled her saviors name once more. It was his sword. She sat up in her position in the grass to gaze over at the dispersing dust clouds. She made out his figure moving out of the clouds and looked him over. Blood was spluttered over his torn leather black trench coat.

His sword began to burn in blue flames and then with much exerted energy of his, he sent Reo a final blow, to leave him on the ground to writhe in pain. Cuts and bruises were a given, but victorious had been an essential element he had overlooked. Blood was pouring unbridled from his mouth and stomach, and Natsume Hyuuga knew it was only a matter of time before too much of that crimson was carried away.

"Polka-dots…" said the determined fighter, his back faced her as he held the sword in both hands, "This place is too dangerous. Go to where Zhang is; she'll take you home. I'll cover up for you." She shook her head furiously; tears flowed down her face, "No! I can't do that! I can't leave you alone in this condition!"

He gave a quick glance at Reo who was stirring up and then yelled at her over his shoulders, "I'm fine! Leave already, idiot!"

Hugging herself as she was drenched from the rain, her form looked so vulnerable and breakable, she yelled "Fine!!! How could you be so mean!?"

Running to Xue who just arrived –with an unconscious Inchou slung over her shoulders like a handbag and a Sumire who complained about the mosquitoes biting her- she vanished into the portal.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

**Wednesday, 12:45 am, the ball. **

I was shuffling along the castle, with absolutely nowhere to go as I traced iridescent cracks in the backstage whilst carefully avoiding the flashy mirrors that force me to stare at my pitiful, red-eyed reflection. Why does he have to be so mean to me? I was only worried about him! People can't just switch and stop caring for someone just like that. That Natsume…

"If you vote for me…" I could hear her proud voice from the centre of the stage while people cheered 'Sumire-Sumire', "then I'll guarantee your children to the best school of Alice!" I snorted. First of all, no one can be guaranteed admission to that school, not even people whose parents went there. Then she added something that was soooo like her: "I shall throw out complimentary mirrors for the elegant women of youth!"

But I guess there are people who want to worship a make-up chick like her rather than a girl who almost died saving her kingdom. Since by the time she finished the teenagers were screaming their heads off and pounding their feet on the bleachers to show their approval. I think the only sensible people here were the adults who looked dissatisfied except for the celebrities that is—well you wouldn't BELIEVE who was here! It was Ayumi Hamasaki-san and Hikaru Utada-san! Not only that- I think I just saw Jennifer Love Hewitt sitting beside Larry King!!! Oh…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Governor looked tight-lipped as he stepped up to the microphone and said, "Erm, thank you very much Shouda-sama. Sakura-hime would like to response to this, um, wonderful point of views. Please give a big hand to Sakura-hime!"

I thought I was going to barf. I really did. I started to walk towards the podium- my knees badly shaking that I'm surprised they even managed to hold me up. Once up- I could see their dissatisfied faces. I knew what they were thinking. They were probably thinking 'She's just a poor town girl. She thinks she's all this and that. Just coz she's a daddy's little girl doesn't make her so high class'

I don't know what exactly happened or why.

Maybe it was the intermittent booing.

May it was the way some obnoxious kid pointed at my blood dipped **and **ripped dress or was it my messy hairstyle (that makes someone wants to desperately yell out 'FIRE! FIRE!') and snickered.

Maybe it was the way one of Perm's friends stood up and cupped his cheeks and shouted 'LOSER! LOSER!' in a manner that could hardly be flattering.

But as I looked at the sea of humanity, and saw bobbling amidst it Ruka-pyon's bright voice as he clapped his guts out for me at sweet Hotaru's shinning face knocking out those who made funny faces, it was like the ghost of my ancestress; the first princess of Alice (according to what I've been taught at my princess lessons) Margareta, took over my body. Because even when I thought that I wanted to barf and all, instead I think I just ripped the microphone off its stand, holding it in FRONT of the podium.

Yeah, in front. Nowhere for me to hide. Nothing separating me from my audience.

The looks on their faces were beyond priceless because of what I began to say and fell into stunned dead silence. I said- not having the slightest Idea where it all came from. With my gaze fixed at Perm's friend (the one who called me loser) I said something that I didn't know it was in ME: "you don't know that you are saying these things to a princess, that if I chose I could wave my hand and order you to execution…" my voice dripped with immense anger, "but I only spare you because I AM a princess…"

I let this sink in for a minute as before me I saw a ripple of disbelief pass over my audience. Larry King murmured something to the governor but I wasn't even cared on why were the people of earth here, "When we were little—I'm sure all of you must have been taught that all would be welcomed to the Kingdom of Alice, regardless of socio-economic status, what color she has, whom she might be dating, whether she waxes, shaves or goes au naturel, or whether or not she chooses to play a sport. All I see here are a bunch of people who've split of into cliques for their own protection and who are totally afraid of letting some rookie incapable of handling the AAO send you back to the _stone ages_."

My locket glimmered in the light as my eyes danced through the people in tux, suits and ball gowns of different ages. My voice grew softer and calm knowing that they were attentive, "We're all afraid of losing the people we treasure. Constant fear takes over us so badly and because of that we don't trust any one anymore. This totally sucks…"

This got a laugh, even though I wasn't in the mood of being funny. Still the laugh made me feel a little less like barfing for some reason. And you know, not AT me but about something I said. And so not in a mocking way too. I felt…cool. No more sweaty palms and stage fright for me!

"Look, I'm not here to promise you a bunch of junk we all know its mission impossible." I said glancing at Perm who had crossed her hands above her chest and made a face at me, "Security guards for every family? Do you honestly think that we could provide one guard each for the –I don't know- 160,000,000 people of Alice, maybe? I'm supposed to be the honoree princess and just take a look at me! Do you think that being drenched in my own blood, kidnapped by Reo, used as a hostage, and nearly dying in just one night sound safe to you?"

"What do you think that the people need- your highness?" the governor asked me sounding amused. I took a deep breath; there was a lot of stuff to get out of my endowed chest. "I may be a town girl who hasn't received the high-tech education. But in my views- I believe that what the people _**need**_ is to keep faith in whoever they elect as the princess. They _**need **_to make a good decision! Just who do these AAO'S think they are? Threatening us like mere bugs on their sidewalk?"

Someone whooped. Encouraged, I continued shutting my eyes real tight, liking the way my voice bounced through the castle walls; "we'll show them WHO we really are! We're ALL CREATED EQUAL! They have no rights to dictate us! All I can say is that you have to vote for someone who can understand you. Someone who will raise YOUR voice and try his or her best to fulfill YOUR dreams. A dream to live peacefully void of war…"

And then there was another whoop and this one was certainly none of the people I knew. The second whoop was followed by a third. And then there was a smattering of applause. And a voice that shouted, "GO SAKURA MIKAN!!!"

Whoa.

The whole castle exploded with claps and cheers much louder than I could ever imagine. Because of what, I, Sakura Mikan had said. I felt so WEIRD when I began to walk back stage in a daze like as though I snapped back to reality. I never ever said something like that before. And to think that all of that was just for me and not for a super doper rich chick like Shouda Sumire makes me feel so…_**proud**_.

Once I changed, I looked at myself; my bandaged arm was covered with the fabric I wore. I changed my dress after arrival to a rather business like out-fit, Dr. Otonashi's choice. It didn't look too bad, I looked kinda retro…I guess, dr. Otonashi-san told me this is the latest fashion in Alice. I was wearing khaki pencil mini-skirt the ones with a slit at the edges and a satiny-pink-tie/belt paired. My shirt was a striped-dressy collared one. The stripes were all shades of pink. I had it unopened a bit at my neck. The magenta colored blazer I paired with it looked awesome, and I even added a rhinestone pin for affect on the collar. The final touch to my ensemble was the brown fedora I snagged for half off at some vintage outlet store back in Japan a long time ago. It had a pink ribbon and matching pin.

After admiring myself, and loosely tying a multi-colored striped tie around my neck for effect, I hightailed it out of there and towards my friends with so many Arnold-like body guards blocking the crowd, thousands of photo flashes that made me go blind for a sec.

Strutting down into a platinum coated couch with exhaustion, I had to sit there and answer all of the news reporters and thank the numerous comments, best wishes and questions asked by Celebes, important folks and news reporters. I then heard someone say something to me from behind me, the voice sounded so familiar, "Your speech kicked butt."

He sidled right up to my red velvet couch and winked at me. I ignored him and my staggering heart rate and wanted to jump out of my seat with casualness—ah, who am I kidding; it was totally obvious. "I hate you," was the first thing out of my mouth to Natsume after I stared daggers at him. "Nice to see you too," Natsume rolled his eyes. But behind those good looks was the devil himself.

I don't get; I've seen him wear that one-sleeve leather trench coat thingy a billion times but let me tell you this: you can never have enough of him, no wonder those slutty fan-girls try courting him. That leather thingy looked so good on him and it hugged him so very nicely— not that I was looking. I mean; puh-leez!

He cocked his head my way, have I mentioned his devious smirk? "It's not very nice to stare at guys like that, little girl" I realized something: I WAS GAPING AT THAT FREAKY ROTTEN BAD ASS BOY!!! URGHH! HOW EMBARASSING!

I blinked at him- he looked so serious, his eyes kept scanning the castle, his expression was so tensed. I mean; his usual free spirit was missing in action. It wasn't long before I started to get worried for him. I knew I was supposed to be mad at him, but this time- I'll let him get away with that. I looked at him, with the very epitome of worry, "Are you okay?" **………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..**

_When you walk away  
I count the steps that you take  
Do you see how much I need you right now?_

". . . Natsume?" she asks, and glossy amethysts are seeking out his, desperately trying to peer into his head and assuage the situation. Her normally cheerful, bubbly countenance has vanished at the moment to be replaced with a mixture of concern and hurt. Rising up in an aberrant worrisome tone that pierces the misty air, her voice is almost too sweet, almost too perfect in all its beguiling innocence. "Natsume, what's wrong?"

"Let's dance." Ignoring her question he asked rather bluntly—then again he_ always_ talks blunt; she sighed.

_When you're gone  
The pieces of my heart are missing you  
When you're gone  
The face I came to know is missing too  
When you're gone  
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day  
And make it OK  
I miss you_

As the flame caster gently held her hands, her eyes were twinkling, blushing a cute shade of pink, they slowly danced.

Mikan was usually very cautious of where she was dancing, but for some reason, with the Hyuuga boy, she just let her body flow with his, for he was leading. The song that was playing through her ears was very soothing. She simply closed her eyes, and unconsciously liking the warmth emitting from the man who saved her life.

Natsume tenderly twirled her around, and safely grasped her small hand to his. He noticed that his hand covered hers entirely. She was small, like a child, but as her eyes closed, she had a big heart.

_I've never felt this way before  
Everything that I do  
reminds me of you  
And the clothes you left  
they lie on the floor  
And they smell just like you  
I love the things that you do  
_

She nearly jumped when he pulled her to a hug, causing her olive eyes to go as wide as saucers.

He has never hugged her before or anyone for that matter, nor has he ever started physical contact with anyone unless it was needed or necessary. "N-Natsume..?" he closed his eyes and took a whiff of her strawberry scented hair, letting his left hand run down her long mousy-brown locks. "Mikan…" She didn't know why he was doing this _affectionate_ gesture, her eyes widened in surprise as he told in a whisper that only he and she could hear; "…sorry." , a faint rosy hue warms her cheeks as she blinks haphazardly; once, twice, three times then finally registered that he was gone.

She fell to her knees and stared at where the flame caster was once, absent-mindedly clasping her hands in front of her chest and lowering her head, "Natsume…"

_When you're gone  
The pieces of my heart are missing you  
When you're gone  
The face I came to know is missing too  
When you're gone  
The words I need to hear to always get me through the day  
And make it OK  
I miss you_

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

_Yawn finally done…I know that I haven't updated in like forever but school's driving me nuts so I can't be blamed. You guys can kill me for the OCCness ____ but I couldn't think of anything else since I'm sick. The song is 'When you're gone' by Avril Lavigne, I really like the way it shows angst in Natsume and Mikan's moments XD last but not least pleeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaassseeeeeeeeeeeeee review!!!!!!!!!!!!! _

_Clover Luck_


	15. Enrolls a new trouble

**PLAY WITH FIRE!**

'Me, a princess? Yeah right!'

_**Disclaimer:**_ I do not own Gakuen Alice. But I do own a voodoo doll (_grins deviously_) of _Natsu-chan._

_--_

_Yeah, yeah, I know, you guys want to yell at me for the 'don't be so happy, we're gonna crush ya for updating after centuries' routine. You'd think that once I'm done with mind-churning exams, the school would pity us and leave me alone, right? WRONG! Looking at my tight schedule with loads of practices and tuitions, I wish that exams roll in right now! _

_From what I made Xue like- I think she's one of my faves. I made her personality a little boy crazy, naughty (since she would mess tease Narumi-san.) Anyway thank you for your reviews guys—it cheers me up to continue:_

_**Ladalada**__- my day is never complete with out your review!!! __**Amaterazu Setsuko**__- Thank you! Just so you know- Sei-sama was really good name; but Amaterazu Setsuko is even better, I luv your new name:D __**Hamano-chan**__- eh, end soon? And disappoint my fans? There's no way I'd end the story!! ;) __**Neko246**__— I love the stories you wrote! __**melissa1995-**__ Natsume…hmm… I don't understand why people have mistaken him dead—did I make a spelling mistake? I'm so sorry; he's just left Mikan and the gang for their safety since Persona kept threatening him. So don't worry!! __**kmc27 **__– (blushes) thank you! __**kemcat16- **__ehehe, its not the end. __**IamYours **__–ehehe, I'm a real fan of adventure! __**melissa1995- **__nope, he's still alive. Just, well, uh, gone away somewhere. But he'll be back! __**JC-zala-**__ you really understand Mikan well (laughs) to be honest, I like the way I've done Mikan. A lot of people have seemed to portray Mikan as stupid. And I really don't like it. By the way, I've read your story, haha, you update a lot faster than I do! __**BlueNobody- **__Aww…I'm so glad you liked it! __**DMS-**__ (blushes) gosh, I don't know what to say! __**lilmissmex3- **__T-t-t-t-thank you, lol._

_I'm sorry if I've missed someone. So here goes nothing:_

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

"You need to examine yourself, you wench!"

2 sharp blades were thrown...

"Well it's true! You flirted with everyone...even Inchou!"

4 blades...

"Heck... I wonder if-"

6 blades...

"I didn't even finish my sent-"

8 blades...

The gang who were seated in the cafeteria, though aware of Ruka's and Xue's usual bickering –that sometimes has violent effects- were surprisingly having their food calmly.

"Ruka, I would like you to stop pulling Xue's hair." Said Hotaru. Yuu just sweat-dropped, "I know I should be glad that Zhang-san has got a job as a student teacher in our school…but how come I'm not?"

Once Xue and Ruka were done glaring at each other, mumbling remorse of foul language under their breath, they sat down at the table, ignoring their sweat-dropped classmates who stared at them. "E-Eto, Hotaru-san, is y-your juice f-frozen?" the sandy-blonde stammered as he looked at his friend with interest.

"Surprisingly I think its room temperature." Hotaru said as she crunched her juice. Ruka looked up from his fries alarmed. "Then why are you chewing it?" he asked.

"To be honest I don't know." Hotaru said bluntly.

His blue eyes swept towards Mikan, who seemed to be poking a fork sadly over her sandwich that had two fungus bread slices over what seemed to b slimy tentacles of an octopus perhaps. "Are you, uh, okay?" he asked her unsure. Upon hearing his voice, her head shot up, "Yeah…I think. When I asked the lunch lady on what this sandwich is _really_ made of, she told me 'It's not chicken. But it comes from an animal that _eats_ chicken.' I'm telling you; the cafeteria's gonna kill us!"

"I wasn't talking about your sandwich…um, never mind." He looked back at his plate, he knew something was wrong with the Alice's gem; she seemed to be lost into her own world lately.

The princess bit her lower lip and questioned in worry, "Eto…Have you guys found anything about Natsume-kun?" Hotaru sighed deeply and Ruka looked at his polished shoes- sadly he shook his head, "Chotto wakarimasen." With a disappointed tone she replied "oh." The group was occupied with heavy silence, neither of them knowing where to begin with.

That is until the commotion began. Soon the cafeteria doors swung open and the students cracked up with whispers seeing a perky looking woman –must be in her twenties- enter in a very old-fashioned and strangely dressed way. She was dressed in a fine velvet dress, with a puffy sleeve at the start of her arm then tightens up to her wrist, a mix of dark navy and burgundy, with black enormous frills. Her shoes were dangerously high-heeled, and her neck and ears were adorned with large sapphires. Her golden-yellow hair, which usually cascaded down her shoulders, was tied up in a surprisingly simple hair-tie and barely touched her shoulders.

In her palm, she twirled the handle of her rainbow colored frilly umbrella as she made her way towards the shocked Mikan. "N-Narumi-san…?"

And truly it was the addressed.

"I MISS YOU!!!! HOW LONG IZ IT BE?? FIFTY YEARS???" exclaimed the blonde, teary-eyed. Mikan choked her sandwich when she flung her arms around Mikan in a suffocating hug saying stuff in French all too fast that Mikan could barely make out its contents. Finally, Narumi-san let go off the purple looking –-due to receiving lack of oxygen— Mikan and pinched her cheeks lovingly, "Ma fille chérie!!! (My beloved daughter!!!)"

Mikan, forgetting to ask on why she had showed up in her world, smiled broadly and gleefully hugged Narumi-san, "Narumi-san, I can't believe your here!!! I missed you so much!!"

"Why _**are**_ you here?" asked the young witch with the least of affections, getting to the point. Narumi-san adjusted her frilly frock, "I decide to come wiz you to traverrll differen worldz, okay?"

A few awkward seconds and rolled in. Until an out-burst from the team, "WHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTT??!!!!!!!!??????!" except Hotaru, everyone related to supernatural (or witnessed supernatural in Yuu's case) had their eyes bulging out. Narumi had to restrain a chuckle, cocking her innocently she enquired, "Why, iz zere a problem?"

Hotaru shook her head; and asked indifferently, "What can you do?"

"That," Narumi smile extended like no end, "is a secret."

The others just exchanged confused glances letting a few silent seconds pass by. But it wasn't for long until Xue had claimed a celebration at the famous Alice Mall.

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

An instant later Mikan was standing before the entrance of one of Alice's biggest malls. As usual it took her a couple of seconds to catch her balance. After all, the mall didn't stand on solid ground. The inside looked like any other mall but the outside looked like a fairy tale castle built on a huge fluffy cloud hovering thousands of feet above ground. It was the ultimate shopping for all sorcerers. The mousy-brown teen grinned watching some tiny tinker-bell-like fairies giggle spreading glitters all around, "I can never get tired of this place."

"We _have_ to find zhat mouse!" The Frenchwomen said firmly. Narumi paused for a moment, and then held up a small mouse cage. "It'z almost time for hiz _lunch_!"

"Okay, why do we _have_ to look for his stupid pet rodent?" Ruka asked in annoyance. "And if you didn't know, frenchie, I said 'Mouse' as in a computer's device that enables us to surf the PC monitor, Mikan had wrecked her previous one and so we are getting her a new one. Hotaru said that over here they sell a special kind of mouse that does not break, it's magically coated."

"Oh." The Frenchwoman blinked and shifted awkwardly. "So zhen…no mouse?"

"No."

"No zherry?"

"NO."

Upon spotting the bubbly tangerine and her companions, Xue waved furiously sharing the same enthusiasm as the protagonist did. And that was how the gang ended up strolling through the path lined with blossoming hydrangea towards the fairy-tale-like castle. The princess felt free, sure she was enforced on having to take her body-guard (good thing it was Xue, though) and was forced to wear huge sunglasses and a blonde-colored wig to disguise herself, but at least she was being _normal._

"Hitomi Kanzaki, here I come!" the mousy-brown haired (or blonde teen- if you wanna be all technical about it) teen giggled punching an arm animatedly in to the cool air. "Dude, Mikan," Xue stated. "_No-one's_ gonna get that joke. Escaflowne was, like, ten years ago. _Seriously_." Mikan blushed in a state of embarrassment.

Mikan spun around when she felt a tug over her layered tee shirt. Her glossy olive eyes sunk into his, he looked like a typical beggar with his tangled and shabby mass of hair almost covering his innocent emerald eyes. As the kid -probably aged four- opened his mouth, he asked in a husky voice that would not be appropriate for a child of his age, "Can you spare me a Rabbit?"

But then all her color in her petite being was drained when she saw that there was more of this child. Baffled, she starred at the mass of hungered to death children promptly of ages even two, begging those who brushed past them and they even bothered to eat the bits of food scraps that lay in the dust. Tears sparkled in her eyes, and the next thing that her eyes viewed was a vision of the boy being beaten up by a man dressed in cloak.

She looked at the child then averted her eyes back on the man as she blocked the child defensively. "Why would you hit this helpless boy? He's helpless, you idiot!" she exclaimed.

"I'm not helpless and don't call me a boy." The child muttered.

"But my Princess—this child—I—a vulgar beggar can not touch the princess!!" Mikan's eyebrows were knit together when she saw the shiny golden badge that proved he was the CID officer and she soon realized that his pesky CID units were watching over her closely, hidden amidst the mass crowd. Alas freedom was never meant to her was it?

Angered, she clutched on the wig and removed it along with her glasses, the crowd gasped as the princess revealed herself, "Have you gone insane?! Have you no mercy for this young child? What reason have you got for this unacceptable act? Why, I could have you sent to the court for this!" surely that was fairly a formal talk, not very convenient to express her anger but she was used to talk as a princess by now, that is if you don't happen to be close to her. The man gulped as she added with furry, "And do not address someone of being vulgar when you yourself happen to be such." She grabbed the young boy's hand and marched out of the admiring crowd, some clapped as she walked by and some whooped. She never wanted to be treated like a celeb. But what could she do? Her subjects simply _love_ her.

"This is horrible…" Mikan muttered to her friends, the young boy cold feel her voice seemingly concerned, "how'd this happen? I thought that Alice was a well-fed international country; I made sure that our economy charts leveled up. Heck, I even spent sleepless nights to get the under 14 labor band law in Alice—"

"Flash news princess" Hotaru cut her off in a rather unfriendly tone, "not all royalties are like you. These people happen to be from the outskirts of Alice or from the neighboring countries. According to what I've heard, these towns were not so inferior before but ever since a group of dictators have taken over, the people are practically dieing for food."

An unexpected face of determination had taken over the young princess, "Whoever is after this…is about to wish he never met me!"

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

Crimson red eyes looked over the whole town of Alice as the owner of the eyes stood still, his back facing the empire building which contained a person he knew not of, other than the fact that the person was a traitor of Persona. The clouds gave way to the moon as it lighted the man who was clad in a leather trench coat designed with one completely ripped off sleeve and silvery zippers over a pair of dark denim jeans. Messy raven hair swayed with the wind like silk, his bangs blown away from his face to give a good look at his slightly tanned complexion and undoubtedly handsome facial features.

He knew his mission too well, as usual it was: assassinate the enemy units. It was the _usual_. He let out a 'this-is-so-damn-easy' smirk before fishing out a remote device and began walking away from the building with ease and the least of panic, not once looking back at the apartment. By a click of the red button on the remote,

_B A M! _

The once high-tech and strongly looking empire state building was now blown into shreds with blazing flames, the sales person was right—it _was_ one of the best time bombs they had. No sweat for this mission, it's real easy to break into an empire state building with 75 trained guards (or was it 80) and dropping a little gift for them. Idly, he reached the last pole in the dark street, acknowledging the stalking presence. Two lurking shadows that watched his every move, ready to pounce any time. Oh, no! Can it be the end of our beloved---

"Hello, Ruka, Zhang."

...The authoress must add this:

...Natsume is spoil sport...

"You know, Ruka, Zhang, I am not the forgivable type" he continued, turning towards them with half-lidded eyes. the female amongst them told him sternly, knowing that he wasn't happy (wait a minute, he never was anyways), "Just because you're a **damn hot **guy that has **sexy ****cute**hair, doesn't scare me and stop me from checking up on you."

Natsume flinched slightly; it's not pretty when your slave gets all flirtatious to you just for trivial conversations. Its not that Xue is bad, mind you, the perfect Chinese killing machine has got a serious problem: she can't stop herself from flirting with guys, especially the cute ones. It all seems like a reflex to her, but hey, she is a person after all and there is space for improvement, right?

"Why are you here?" scoffed Natsume. She looked at him- before bowing down traditionally as an apology, "Persona has sent for me to keep an eye on you." Natsume rolled his vermillion-onyx eyes, _'I pray that his death would be from my own hands.'_ Ruka's eyebrows furrowed in concern, "I just came to see you. I mean, I can't believe I have to lie to Mikan-chan about not knowing your—"

Instead Natsume asked them quietly, "How's she doing?"

He was sure she liked him though; there had never been another guy with her other than the morons who were easily intimidated by a glare when he happened to be around. He was confident enough to hold on to the ambition of making her his. Xue just chuckled, looking up and she heaved a happy sigh, "She's much stronger now."

Natsume's mind flashed with the pictures of the countless times he had saved her life, he could clearly remember her vulnerable and petite figure soak in sheer fear. He realized that her shy, self-conscious and sacrificing nature stops her from confiding what she really wants to do.

Xue added with a happy sigh, "She still plays the cute and clumsy roll and still has the ability to love- love selflessly and unconditionally. She makes the kids feel like a star, and us slaved people like we're the most important thing in her life. I know I'm not supposed to look up at such trivial matters but when I see her walk with grace and confidence, I…something stirs in me. I think its called pride."

Xue smile soon turned into a deep frown and after what she said, Natsume couldn't decide to whether smack Mikan's head until she begins to use it or smack his own head first. "But her persistent determination tells her to jump into the lion's mouth. And the lion happens to be _Persona_ himself."

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

"He looks kind of happy now." Mikan's smile couldn't get any wider as she stood in the kitchen listening to little You-chan –his real name happens to be Hijri Youchi but Mikan enjoys the nick name- play with his new electric train in the living room. She heard the train stop and the young lad say, "All of you sons of bitches who want to get off, get the hell off now, coz this is the last stop! And all of you sons of bitches, who are getting on, get your asses in the train, coz we're going down the tracks."

Mikan's jaw loosened and fell, then she clamped it shut again, eyes as big as saucers, "...eh...?"

Silence…

Silence…

Even more deafening silence…

"We don't use that kind of language in this house. Now I want you to go to your room and you are to stay there for TWO HOURS. When you come out, you may play with your train, but I want you to use nice language." Finally spoke the princess in a strict no-nonsense tone. She pointed her slender yet stern finger towards the door; the silver hair boy of four groaned as he passed by and banged the door loudly.

Two hours later, he came out of the bedroom and resumes playing with his train. Soon the train stopped and Mikan heard the boy say, "All passengers who are disembarking from the train; please remember to take all of your belongings with you. We thank you for riding with us today and hope your trip was a pleasant one. We hope you will ride with us again soon." She hears the little boy continue, "For those of you just boarding, we ask you to stow all of your hand luggage under your seat. Remember, there is no smoking on the train. We hope you will have a pleasant and relaxing journey with us today."

As the mousy-brown teen began to smile proudly, the adorable child added, "For those of you who are pissed off about the TWO HOUR delay, please see the bitch in the kitchen."

"Ugh!" exclaimed the princess as she failed her hands hopelessly. Picking up a cloth piece, she hummed sweetly sweeping the floor and stole a quick glance at the cleaned and adorably petulant child emit childish 'choo choo' sounds. A genuine smile had replaced her previous motherly anger.

Soon footsteps drummed over the hollow wooden floor. Mikan looked up finding Hotaru and Ruka walk towards her, hand-in-hand with Tsubasa following. '_Oh, yes…_' Mikan recalled as she stood up musing Ruka and Hotaru's fingers intertwined, '_they're a happy couple now._' It's been about six months since they are going out now, though Hotaru posses her impassive façade; Mikan truly believes that her best friend has never been so happy in her life ever since the blonde expressed his love for her. She was happy for them. Yet at times she felt envious.

"Konbawa." Came her chirpy greet. She picked up a tray with refreshments and as she handed the drinks she hushed the couple, "Any idea where we should began investigating? You know, about _who's after all of this_?" Ruka looked at her as he sipped the raspberry drink, "Yeah, you'd be surprised where we're heading to. Its one of Alice's neighboring countries, Begum Quatris. We'll be leaving first thing in the morning." Mikan just nodded with her mouth in shapes of an 'O'.

"Great. At least you're not a high-heel fanatic." Said Tsubasa interrupting, "Have you ever seen what my mom wears?" Mikan rolled her eyes, and then bonked him on the head playfully. "Oh, leave your poor mother out of this. She wears awesome shoes."

Tsubasa scoffed, "As soon as she can cook as well as she can tell if a Gucci shoe is real or not, then I'd worship the ground she walks on." He paused. "With the shoes too." Mikan giggled on hearing this.

She barely minded the fact that her sempai and long time friend has bounced over her new velvet cushion, stuffing a few French fries that Mikan had served (and of course eyeing the cute apron she was donning) he asked, "Hey, any idea here the Hyuuga kid is?" His voice trailed off when he noticed Mikan's shoulders sagged. Ruka and Hotaru suddenly understood. "You still miss them, don't you?" said the witch quietly. "It's been nearly a year since Natsume disappeared." Her boyfriend continued with a trace of concern for the princess evident in his voice.

"I know," whispered Mikan. "It's just…" She sighed. He was the one thing she had always been able to count on; she had always known he would be there. But now he was gone.

The idea just seemed so alien, the fact that a person could exist one moment, and then be gone the next. There were so many things she had wanted to share with him, so many thoughts left unsaid. She had always thought that there would be time to discuss these things, that they would have all the time in the world together.

And now he was gone.

_Gone._ The dull word resonated throughout her brain, mocking her suffering.

She didn't know a stray tear that was trailing down the plane of her right cheek was left un-wiped. She had only stopped crying a few weeks ago. Her tears had finally run dry and she no longer believed she could ever cry again. All that was left was a haunting numb feeling. Some days her head felt heavy, others it felt weightless. Darn it, third time today. Sneaky little devils.

"Hotaru…" she hesitated, choking back another sob, "I-I think I love him."

Hotaru smiled sadly at this declaration. "I know."

Mikan looked surprised.

"We all knew. Everyone was just waiting for the two of _you_ to figure it out."

'_But why?'_ Tsubasa surprised the beautiful princess by standing up suddenly then his hand had easily seized her arm before she could continue moving on without him. Chills were sent down her spine when he jerked her closer and hissed, "Do you honestly think that he deserves your love after breaking all means of contact with you, after not telling you the reason for his departure and after practically deserting you all by yourself?"

She was speechless yet all she could do was look into his sapphire eyes, and if she wasn't so dense and ignorant in the prospects on love, she would have notice sadness -and what girls called- jealousy linger in them. In a few seconds, nobody dared to move. Nobody dared to break the tensed silence yet. Ruka could feel himself sink in guilt as he watched her shake weakly.

She's disgusted with herself thinking about her stupidity right now.

Perhaps she really is foolish. The man obviously is already in love with somebody else by now, and here she is, still pining to wait for him—_for God's sake_. She tried controlling the self-mocking laugh that rose in her throat. Maybe she really _is_ mentally challenged after all. Maybe even _sicker_ than what she seems. Or maybe she's just a sadist—or worse, a sadomasochist. Really, didn't she just love hurting herself?

She tried to swallow the soar stuck in her throat and with all her might, she pleaded in a squeaky voice, "I-I need t-to go."

Hotaru glared at the sempai before heading to Mikan's bedroom where the princess had dashed off to. While Ruka watched their sempai intently as he blinked like though he was hit hard on the head- was he, THE **Andou Tsubasa**, coolest of cool, being _jealous_?

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

The mousy-brown's delicate skin appeared so very pale. The colored flecks of light from the sun above glowed across her small frame, layering her petite body in rays of unearthly hues of gold and amber; it highlighted her cinnamon tresses in warm shades of auburn red, adding color to her passively snow-white cheeks as she kneeled in her precious garden, twirling the green stem of the rose flower in her delicate fingers. "How can a place so beautiful be so…sad?"

"To be honest," Hotaru watched the sky, "I don't know." The stoic witch felt a gentle tap over her shoulder; she turned around and found her blonde boyfriend wearing a gentle smile. "We have to go towards the west remember? Zhang-san and Narumi-san has already headed towards the east. I hope Mikan-chan wouldn't mind being here by herself. If you need anything, anything at all, give us a ring, okay?"

Mikan nodded in agreement and then snickered as she cooed, "Oh, don't worry about me, I'll be perfectly fine. You should be more worried about Hotaru. I know that you're a big boy now, Ruka-pyon. I do trust you not _do something wrong_ while the two of you are _alone_. After all, I don't intend her to have a baby just yet. She's only sixteen."

Ruka turned scarlet. Hotaru sent a piercing glare at her friend. Mikan kept quite.

"O-Okay, we'll be leaving then." Waved Ruka and strolled beside Hotaru who walked ahead. Once Mikan saw their figures completely disappear, she stood up and stretched her arms. "Mou." She pouted as she recalled at what she commented to the couple, "I was just asking what Xue asked me to say. _Gasp!_" But then she stumbled and fell. Not because she was displaying her clumsy act. But because the ground shacked. Not even because it was an old-fashioned earthquake, it was the weight of the huge haemorphage that made the ground shack.

Her heart pounded erratically over hr chest as she yelped a cry and dashed towards the nearest exit. '_Oh no!_' she halted suddenly when she released that she had dropped her cell phone in a nearby lake accidentally when she wanted to ring up for help. She gulped looking at the demon as she sunk her hand in the pond, digging for her cell phone.

"_Your highness! May ask you a few questions?"_

_She nodded nervously._

"_Do you always depend on others?" _

"_Is it too hard for you to rely on yourself entirely?" _

"_Is it too hard for you to protect yourself?"_

Those were the hurting questions the press had asked her when she was voted as the princess. Mikan shook her head, snapping out of unwanted thoughts, 'There's_ no way I'm going to be afraid of a brainless dumbbell. There's no way I'm running!' _thought the princess mustering up courage.

She stood up and aimed a cheap looking wand she bought from Alice Mall. Hoping that would zap a ray, she did not back out. For some reason she guessed this was another AAO scam to scare her. Too bad she had taught herself something that does not permit her to scream and run away like she used to, _'If they push you, you push them back. This is the new Mikan, no longer self-conscious and ignorant! I won't show any more signs of weakness! I will fight for all the princesses out there!'_

Everything was going according to plan, the wand was ready, the demon was being lured into her trap (or at least that's what she hopes) and she might be able to show the AAOs that she's more than just a princess. Everything was going according to plan until…

"Get the hell out of the way, baka!" she heard a yell and was soon carried off bridal style. Just in time when the haemorphage immediately crushed the ground she was previously on. Mikan blinked and looked at her savior when the familiarly deep and silky masculine voice spoke, "What the heck is your problem? Can't you be more careful??"

Her vision seemed clouded and blurry and she only realized that the haemorphage was actually chasing someone, and it was her rescuer. Utterly and completely shocked is the best way to describe how she felt when her blurred vision ceased, and she inhaled a sharp breath and her eyes grew impossibly wide. It's kind of cliché to admit that for Mikan, only the two of them stood there, locked away from the world, but that's how he felt. She clearly remembered the way he smelled, the strength of his arms around her and yet she most certainly could not believe that the man who once stole her heart and then broke it was here, right in front of her. "N-N…"

'_No. it can't be…'_

"N-Natsume...?"

'_He's…back.'_

**……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………**

_Look at me, the sadistic author leaving you guys at a cliffy, and after all the awesome reviews you guys left me for the last chapter, too._ _Are the characters OC? Most definitely. I've placed them in their sweet sixteen's for this fiction and tried to write how I imagined they would act. Like anyone else, I could be wrong making their personalities OC. Remember when Mikan said 'If they push you, you push them back. This is the new Mikan, no longer self-conscious and ignorant! I won't show any more signs of weakness! I will fight for all the princesses out there!' the idea of Mikan fighting for all the princess may seem a bit dumb to some of you, but I enjoy making her seem brave. And since her character is quite childish, that's the only thing I could come up with. Also, I know that this chapter isn't so interesting, but I promise you that I would make the following ones more tongue-biting (lol)_

_I have come __across__ loads of fan-fic accountants who have added me to their list (and I'm very grateful, guys) but haven't dropped a review. Now, if you don't want to waste time logging in, then you could always drop anonymous (smiles) Anyhow, thank you all of you for your continued support by sharing with me your take on the story as it progresses (and also please do mention on what you think of Xue and how you would like to see her, since she's my hand made character) and what you think about it. It makes me very happy. _

_ Oh, wait, I almost forgot-- **Happy (belated) Eid and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year (in advance)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!**_

_-Clover Luck_


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